An important hearing, which could reopen the case against Union Carbide Corporation and possibly even reopen the controversial and inadequate 1989 settlement, is taking place in India’s apex court. In a series of daily despatches Shalini Sharma, a PhD student at the London School of Oriental and African Studies, guides us through the proceedings, summarising [...]
Unable to decide on the amount it should seek from Dow Chemical Company and erstwhile Union Carbide as enhanced compensation for the Bhopal gas leak, the Union Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers has put on hold the move to file a curative petition in the Supreme Court. The ministry has told its lawyers that it [...]
Press Statement Calling the Group of Minister’s offer of compensation a smokescreen, all seven organizations for survivors’ rights have strongly condemned the recommendations of the Group of Ministers on Bhopal. The Group of Ministers pretends to offer relief and rehabilitation but the details reveal that issues of compensation, rehabilitation and corporate liability are totally ignored. [...]
Our thanks to Shobhan Saxena, for sending us this piece he wrote for his column in The Times of India. ––––––––––––– Because the line between democracy and manipulation is very thin, at times it becomes blurred. Today, this line dissolved completely as the Group of Ministers (GoM) reportedly recommended a number of steps to cool [...]
NDTV (New Delhi Television) one of India’s prime news channels, yesterday received a letter from Dow spokesman Scott Wheeler claiming that the case to hold Dow responsible for cleaning up Bhopal had been concocted by “activists”. “There are some,” Wheeler wrote, “who continue to try to affix responsibility for the Bhopal tragedy to Dow, but [...]
INDUSTRY, IMPARTIALITY, INTEGRITY, says the badge of India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the national equivalent of America’s FBI. Not according to its former Joint Director B. R. Lall, who was the senior officer in charge of the Bhopal investigation from April 1994 to July 1995. Lall, clearly nettled by criticisms that his organisation neglected [...]
The people most responsible for the disaster in Bhopal were not in the courtroom yesterday when eight Indian employees of Union Carbide India Limited were found guilty of criminal negligence. Union Carbide Corporation (US), its ex-Chairman Warren Anderson, and Union Carbide Eastern, have been refusing since 1992 to obey the summons of the court and answer charges of culpable homicide. The evidence against them remains unheard, as the prosecution sought to focus on the small fry, the Indian managers, who despite their own failings and shortcomings were ultimately carrying out orders that originated in the United States.
According to Eveready Industries, the successor to Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL), there was never any danger of a judgement against the company, consequently no need to provide financially for that eventuality. Whence comes this overweening confidence? “Trial proceedings before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Bhopal, on the modified charges framed under the directions of the [...]
On the night of 2/3 December 1984, the inhabitants of the city of Bhopal became victims of the world’s worst industrial disaster. 40 tonnes of methyl iscocyanate (MIC – a highly volatile toxic chemical) stored at the pesticide plant owned by Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL), a subsidiary of Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), USA – [...]
The people most responsible for the disaster in Bhopal will not be in the courtroom when the verdict against the Indian defendants is announced. Union Carbide Corporation and its ex-Chairman Warren Anderson, and Union Carbide Eastern, have refused since 1992 to obey the summons of the court and answer charges of culpable homicide. The evidence [...]
