Tragedy continues in Bhopal


I was deeply disturbed & disappointed by the verdict delivered by a Bhopal court in the gas tragedy that happened way back in 1984.

Twenty six years after the world’s worst industrial disaster, which took the lives of more than 15,000 people and maimed thousands for life, judgement has been delivered in the case. The judgement for the culprits is unbelievable. Just 2 years jail ... no need to serve that either. All convicted were let off on bail immediately. And the main villain of this horrific event Mr.Warren Anderson never had to face the trial. He didn't even had to spend a single minute in jail for being the main reason for such a horrible event.

Just click on this link, which was posted on the 20th anniversary of the tragedy in 2004. The pictures & the events following the gas leak will melt the heart of even Osama Bin Laden. But, it seems, our politicians’ minds are made of iron; they are just not bothered about the episode; no willingness to either to punish the culprits or to provide adequate compensation to the affected people.

Question of Anderson's extradition

Some people argue that it is too late to extradite Anderson & make him face trial, as he is already 90 years of age.  Anderson is leading a luxurious life in New York.

My take is, better late than never. Even though it doesn’t make sense to call for his extradition & make him face a trial due to his age, it will give a sense of satisfaction to all those affected by this disaster that the main villain has been punished. I don't think he would have lost all his senses that he doesn't even remember having manslaughtered 15000 innocent lives & made the lives of thousands of people miserable. Let him spend his remaining life in the Indian jails.

Further, I was surprised when I found that the US is still pursuing cases pertaining to Nazi War Crimes !!! US Government is fighting a case against Mr.Vladas Zajanckausas, a 93-year-old Lithuanian-American, to deport him for trial to Lithuania for alleged Nazi war crimes. This case clearly shows the double standards adopted by the US Government.


Compensation to the victims

It is said that the Government of India had claimed USD 3.3 billion from Union Carbide (source) as compensation on behalf of all the victims. However, for unknown reasons, the Government finally agreed for a paltry USD 470 million, a mere 15% of the original claim. 

This compensation works out to a pathetic US$ 500 (around Rs.25,000) for a person. The Dow Chemicals spokesperson had remarked in 2002 that "$500 is plenty good for an Indian". Click here to watch what Mr.Ramachandran, former CBI Joint Director and Mr.K.Parasaran, former Attorney General of India, who represented the Government in settlement, have to say regarding the tragedy.

This amount paid by Union Carbide is just the insurance amount.  So, effectively, the company has not incurred any liability for its stupid, reckless & inhuman acts.


Clean-up of the site

No solution has been found, till date, to clean up the tonnes of toxic waste left over on the premises of the now defunct plant (source). The deadly chemicals have contaminated the ground water in & around the area & has made it unfit for drinking purpose.  Dow Chemicals, which bought Union Carbide in 2001, is unwilling to take any responsibility to clean up the site. 


Nuclear Liability Bill:

It is apparent that the our Prime Minister is eager to "gift" the Nuclear Liability Bill to the US President, during his visit here later in the year. It is said that the liability cap of a mere 300 million US dollars has been proposed in the bill in case of any accident (source). It is also believed that a key clause holding the foreign suppliers responsible for willful negligence in the bill has been dropped to "please" the Americans.

One can only hope that better sense prevails & the Nuclear Liability Bill is re-drafted taking into account the horrific experience in Bhopal.

Our Legal System:

Our Legal System has to be completely revamped urgently. It's really pathetic that it took 26 years for the court to deliver the justice in a case, pertaining to the world's most horrific industrial disaster.  According to the Economist, India's courts have a backlog of more than 20 million cases, which by one judge's estimate would take 320 years to clear. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Google Buzz

Got to explore Google Buzz, the new tool for social networking, today...In some articles on the web, it was written, that Buzz is facebook & twitter put together. But, I feel it is exactly similar to twitter with provision for sharing of photos and videos. Also, one can send "mega" tweets...no 140 character restriction here.. You don't have communities or wall-like concepts in Buzz. It is just following others & being followed by others, similar to Twitter. Integration into Gmail is a plus, which assists, atleast initially, for getting followers & to follow others. Twitter lacks in this. Already some people opine that Buzz is the beginning of the end of Twitter as Buzz is integrated with Gmail. Further, one's picasa, youtube, twitter, blogger accounts can also be linked in Buzz. Facility to link picasa & youtube accounts will make sharing of photos & videos much simpler. Link to twitter feature is there, but it is one way. Public tweets in Twitt
Read more

Statistics about countries in the world.

A FAQ on geography is the total number of countries in the world. I just got curious to know the exact count & googled to find it out. While searching for this, I stumbled upon many other interesting facts. Total number of countries: Totally, there are 195 countries in the world. But, this figure includes Taiwan. Eventhough, Taiwan functions like an independent country with a separate capital & currency, it is not recognised so by most of the countries due to Chinese pressure. China claims Taiwan as its province. U.N. members: Amongst the remaining 194 countries, 192 are U.N. members. Vatican City & Kosovo, two recognized independent countries, are not members of U.N. World's Newest Countries: Kosovo is the newest country of the world. It was formed from Serbia in the year 2008. Prior to that Serbia & Montenegro got independence in the year 2006 (both formed from Yugoslavia). 33 new countries have been created since 1990. Most of them were formed due t
Read more

SEBI - a proactive investor friendly regulator.

A pleasant surprise for me, when I happened to check my savings account statement, today. I observed a credit of a few hundreds and was scratching my head, as to what it is. The transaction remark was not clear. It read like 'SEBI IPO'. But, when I read an article in rediff (link shown below), then I understood the reason for this credit. Source:  http://business.rediff.com/report/2010/apr/13/sebi-disburses-rs-20-crore-to-investors-in-ipo-scam.htm It was like unbelievable, but true. When there were stories doing the rounds that SEBI is planning to compensate the retail applicants affected by the IPO scam of 2004-05 in some way a couple of months back, I thought it was just a foolish idea, as it is an impossible thing to do so, looking into the complexity of such an exercise.  But, SEBI has done it !!! Rs. 20 crores collected from the IPO scamsters has been distributed to over 12.75 lakh retail investors, who would have otherwise profited by the share allotment in IPO. Though
Read more