PM wants Bhopal report in 10 days

With the Bhopal gas tragedy verdict triggering an in-house Congress drama, the government sought to shift focus to the group of ministers (GoM) set up to examine the trial court’s decision, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking a report within 10 days.Congress efforts to control internal finger-pointing over the run-up to the verdict paid off, and the government is keen to present a business-like approach, addressing the perception that offenders escaped lightly while victims were poorly recompensed.The GoM, headed by home minister P Chidambaram, is expected to hold an early meeting and “take stock of the situation arising out of the recent court judgment, to assess options and remedies available to the government on various issues involved, and to report to the cabinet within 10 days’’. Sources said the PM expects the GoM to examine a possible appeal—or, as finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said, seek then Carbide CEO Warren Anderson’s extradition. The GoM has a limited mandate of remediation and rehabilitation for Bhopal gas victims, but can take up issues that it feels are of relevance. Given the outcry over the verdict, the GoM will not be unmindful of the public mood.
With the PMO stating in its media release that the GoM is to take stock of the situation arising out of the judgment, it is possible the ministerial panel’s mandate has been expanded as the terms of reference deal with only two critical issues—a technical plan for clean-up of the contaminated site, and funds for the clean-up. Three technical institutes tasked on the plan are expected to submit their report by month-end, which would help the GoM draw up a roadmap for a clean-up. But the political hot potato is the question of who will pick up the cheque. At present, the government has slapped a Rs 100 crore notice on Dow Chemicals, which bought over Union Carbide, as advance against remediation of the site and rehabilitation of victims and the contamination of groundwater.

Gas tragedy survivors wrote a letter to US President Barack Obama for “real justice” in the case and drew his attention to his tough stand on “corporate accountability” over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. They sought Obama should allow judicial processes to fix “responsibility of the corporations and individuals of the US responsible for the Bhopal tragedy’’.