Welcome Move By Goverment To Seek More Compensation For Bhopal Gas Victims
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By Our Editorial Team
First publised on 2022-10-14 02:50:37
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The India Commentary view
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A hasty out of court settlement in 1989, based on grossly incorrect figures of the people affected by the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, meant that India received a lot less in damages than was warranted for an industrial mishap and tragedy of that magnitude. While India had sued the Union Carbine India Ltd (UCIL), owned by The Dow Chemical Company for $3.3bn in the US, it inexplicably settled for just $ 470mn.
Now the government has informed the Supreme Court that it will pursue the curative petition filed in 2010 (which, again, was inexplicably not pursued since then) to try and get just compensation for the victims whose numbers have swelled on revised data which is closer to the actual numbers who suffered from the tragedy. The 1989 settlement assumed that there were only 3000 deaths with 20000 thousand suffering from severe injuries and 50000 from minor ones. Since then, it has been found that more than 5000 died and more than 35000 were affected with severe injuries and over 525000 people suffered minor injuries.
This is apart from the fact that the mishap resulted in throwing life out of gear for a whole city for many years, with some still living in pain due to the trauma they suffered. If a similar mishap had happened in any of the industrialized nations, the compensation would have run into billions. Hence, the government's belated efforts to pursue the curative petition are welcome. Those representing the Bhopal gas victims have always alleged that the 1989 settlement was a 'sell-out' and the then government abandoned the gas victims. Now, attorney general R Venkatramani has said in court that the "government cannot abandon the victims". The government should once again ascertain the exact figures of the affected persons and the other extensive damage caused to the city of Bhopal and its hinterland by the leakage of the gas in order to get enhanced compensation for the victims whose life has become painful and cursed due to the mishap.
