People's Democracy

 'Act on Parliamentary Committee Recommendations of 2003'

Dipankar Mukherjee, ex-MP and secretary of CITU, has written the following letter to prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh on June 15, 2010 regarding the Bhopal Gas tragedy.

THE 12th report of Committee on Government Assurances in 13th Lok Sabha was placed in the Lok Sabha on 27.02.2003. The Committee had six sittings with representatives of Ministries of External Affairs, Law & Justice and the CBI, before presenting their observations/ recommendations, some of which are as follows:

• The Committee find that the Bhopal Gas Tragedy case was entrusted to CBI on December 09, 1984... The Committee are distressed to note that the CBI filed the charge sheet against 12 accused including Mr  Warren Anderson, former chairman, Union Carbide Corporation USA in a Bhopal Court on December 01, 1987 i.e. three years after the tragedy.

• The irony of the case is that Mr Warren Anderson had, in fact, been arrested and released on bail by the Madhya Pradesh Police at Bhopal on December 07, 1984. The statement of the CBI that the case was initially with the state police and the circumstances in which he was arrested and released on bail were known to the state police speaks volumes of things, which the Committee feel, the CBI did not perhaps like to disclose. The Committee are of the firm opinion that in a matter involving such a great industrial disaster involving a foreign company, the state government could not have taken a unilateral decision on arrest and release of Mr Warren Anderson. The Committee hold both the governments of the state and the centre equally responsible for this drama of arrest and release of Mr Warren Anderson.

• It is amazing to the Committee that the CBI then took another 1½ years in preparing and sending the brief to the ministry of external affairs. The legal opinion of US law firm was finally received on April 04, 2001 i.e. after almost three years of the advice given by the Attorney General. The Committee are distressed by the fact that the government were able to obtain the opinion of the US Law Firm almost after three years of obtaining the advice of Attorney General. In this age of fast communication network around the globe, it sounds strange that the obtaining the opinion of US law firm by the government of India took almost three years. This clearly speaks of lackadaisical approach of the government in this case. The Committee have, therefore, come to a conclusion that the government never seemed to be serious enough to get this case decided on priority basis and dealt the case in a routine manner resulting in loss of precious time apart from sufferings being borne by the victims or might be too reluctant and hesitant to proceed against the chief accused, i.e chairman of Union Carbide, an MNC of USA, Mr Warren Anderson.

• The Committee are distressed by the fact that the government have taken such a long time in examining the possibility of extraditing Mr  Warren Anderson from USA. The delay in extraditing Mr Warren Anderson has become the cause of concern as the victims of the tragedy as also the people at large have shown their displeasure and questioned the attitude of the government in handling the case. The Committee, therefore, urge the government to strengthen the evidence and thereafter request the government of USA for extradition of the accused from the USA.

• The Committee note that the 1973 UCC documents, discovered recently, show that Union Carbide’s engineers at South Charleston expressly warned of the danger of sub surface water pollution. The government of India’s and Madhya Pradesh state government’s participation in the on-going law suit in the American Court by the Disaster Survivors’ Organisation for the unprecedented and huge environmental pollution in Bhopal and re-opening of the settlement issue is urgently required for claiming compensation for cleaning costs as damages from UCC. The Madhya Pradesh government may also – if they deem it fit and proper – point out that since UCC is wholly responsible for the environmental disaster in Bhopal, the cleaning cost must be borne by them only.

• The Committee, particularly in the background of emerging liberalisation/globalisation when transnational corporations and foreign companies are being invited to set up their units in the country, want to caution the government that it has now become incumbent on their part to send a message world over that the offences of the type committed by UCC plant at Bhopal will not be allowed to be repeated.

 I believe the government is a continuing and indivisible entity. Are the above unanimous observations/ recommendations not enough for the present government to take immediate action to bring some amount of credibility to the administrative and legal process in the country which are under a cloud?

(INN)