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India May Increase Compensation to Victims of 1984 Union Carbide Gas Leak
India may increase compensation for victims of the 1984 toxic gas leak at a Union Carbide Corp. plant in the city of Bhopal that killed at least 3,800 people, Urban Development Minister Jaipal Reddy said in New Delhi today.
The country will also seek extradition of Warren Anderson, the former chairman of Union Carbide, from the U.S., Reddy told reporters in New Delhi today after a meeting of a group of ministers formed to advise the government on the tragedy. The panel decided to “clean up” the toxic site in Bhopal, he said.
An Indian court on June 7 sentenced seven former senior employees of Union Carbide’s local unit to two years each in jail, more than 25 years after the leak. The quantum of sentence caused widespread public anger. The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party has criticized the federal Congress-party led government for allowing Anderson to leave India.
An accident at the Union Carbide pesticide plant on Dec. 3, 1984, released methyl isocyanate gas into the streets of Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh state in central India. Union Carbide estimated that 3,800 people were killed by the leak. Amnesty International, a human rights group, commissioned a study that showed 7,000 perished within days and another 15,000 died later from exposure to the gas.
Midland, Michigan-based Dow Chemical Co., the world’s second-largest chemical maker, acquired Union Carbide in 1999. Dow says all liabilities were settled in a $470 million out-of- court settlement Union Carbide agreed with the Indian government in 1989.
India’s cabinet will take a view on the recommendation of the ministerial panel in a meeting on June 25, Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said today.
“We have dealt with all issues -- compensation, legal and pursuing the extradition of Warren Anderson, the legal options available to the government of India and, most importantly, the remediation issues and health-related matters,” Chidambaram said.
Tomm F. Sprick, a spokesman for Union Carbide, said this month that the company and its officials are not subject to jurisdiction of Indian courts since they did not have any involvement in the operation of the Bhopal plant, which was owned and operated by Union Carbide India Ltd.
Sprick did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment on today’s developments.
To contact the reporter on this story: Bibhudatta Pradhan in New Delhi at bpradhan@bloomberg.net.
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