The Bhopal Tragedy Continues

NB,Guru
My wordings was bad....
People try to extract every pound of flesh from these big companies for every small failures...
Large number of Indian companies are polluting environment and causing death. Who bothers about these companies?

#8 Indians are trying to squeeze multinationals? You know nothing about this.

Re: # 11: Pl talk only about man made/caused accidents. When there are railway accidents there are compensations.

When UC is given permit to mfg pesticides over say RFC, and artificially price of the pesticides is fixed so that they make good profit and not compromise on safety and environmental pollution, they are supposed to do that. It's like if DRDO gun misfires, from the mistake DRDO learns and the nation benefits. But if Bofors for which you had paid thru nose misfires then you need to get some compensation from Bofors.

Re: # 9
Guru...Shanti, Shanti,Shanti....

Every year hundreds of people die from flood in Bihar( North) and West Bengal (Malda and Murshidabad). How much compensation they expect from Govt. and bring Govt. to court for such issues? The reason of such flood is Farakka dam over Ganges.
Entire Jharia coal belt, the fire is destroying the base of the town. Is ECL taking any step to douse it?
I knew couple of Gas leak incidents in Howrah ( industrial ares like Dasnagar...). It may not be as devastating like UC, but they are carrying out their work as usual. UC is big identity and so we have to punish them. How, about local culprits?
Vapi is one of the most polluted cities of the world. How many of us have taken up this silent but steady killer...

Thanks for reading my article and your comments. I truly feel for those who were in the state at the time the tragedy hit. Regards, Lajwanti

Re: # 8: "3rd World countries try to exploit US based MNCs as much as possible and in long run create trouble for themselves..."

Naive, Credulous and ingenuous! But looking at your other posts it seems there is a motive. Is there? It's cruel to large section of humanity. BTW, what is this 3rld world? Read too much readers digest, time & news week? Coconutization is rampant.

BTW, good proportion of victims were poor abduls & salmas. Yours truely did whatever in his means then in first 2 months of the tragedy before landing in US for studies. Corporations are squeezing balls of all even well-meaning simple Americans. Corporations work against people's democracy all the time, eg. 11th Sept 1973, Enron & ..

Re: # 5
Haris...
Environmental stuff etc. should have been taken care while installing the factory. Now, after the accident, you suddenly can not bring this matter into public. GOI was equaly responsible with Union Carbide (80% UC and 20% GOI). So, GOI should pay compensation accordingly.
3rd World countries try to exploit US based MNCs as much as possible and in long run create trouble for themselves...

#5 by harish_hyd

...children given birth to by affectees after the disaster have suffered....

The Bhopal tragedy is one very close to my heart...how many of you can say you were in the state when it hit?
The people of Bhopal have been let down by successive Union and State governments. Why did the author not mention the settlements that were made by the government of Rajiv Gandhi with Union Carbide that so undervalued the lives of the people of this city?
One Congress government after the next sold the suffering of the people of Bhopal for their own gains. The media has always been afraid to criticise these governments, partly because nasty things tend to happen to those who do, and also because MP is a heartland state which sees a direct Congress/BJP fight, and criticising the Congress is seen as supporting the BJP, which of course the media can never do. Very little investigative work has been done as to how these deals were made and who the beneficiaries were. On the streets of MP, now, as then, conspiracy theories are stillraised. Given that so little has been done for these victims, I wonder if there was some truth in them. The bottom line is that Union Carbide has got away with murder.

#4 by nkg

When Union Carbide wanted to provide compensation to the victims, victims and GOI asked for abnormaly high amount ( compared to the current market rate used for train accident victims)

If that is the case, the GoI was right in demanding higher compensation. Because whereas in a train accident only the victim dies, in the Bhopal gas leak case, children given birth to affectees after the disaster have suffered various ailments and deformities and continue to do so. Besides, the environmental damage suffered was enormous.

Re: # 3
The source of the following information is Hari and I have chosen to rely on it...
When Union Carbide wanted to provide compensation to the victims, victims and GOI asked for abnormaly high amount ( compared to the current market rate used for train accident victims)...Union Carbide backed off and resorted to delay tactics(take help of Indian Judiciarty)...

Bhopal was one of the greatest tragedies the world witnessed. An even greater tragedy is the manner in which the victims were handled, both by Dow Chemicals and the Govt. of India.

Dow corning even got by with their contamination of many water bodies and cities in the USA. While they were also responsible for silicone and other materials they used in manufacturing breast implants which resulted adversely in numerous recipients of such flawed implants, however nothing happened to the manufacturer.

What a monumental tragedy and equally monumental apathy of the GoI!

I think UC gave some Rs. 5-600 crores of compensation but how much of it actually went to the beneficiaries is the question. Nevertheless the remedies made in India upon this tragedy were not witnessed coz we have the chemical plants releasing toxic gases at nights is a norm in western India (as far as I know); those chemical plants release effluents to the pristine tributaries and rivers & release toxic gases is also a naked crime that go unnoticed, leave alone unpunished. In fact Vapi is one of the top-10 polluted cities in the world. The death of flora and fauna & throttling of general environment and rise of gas-related diseases are not at all studied leave alone remedied. It’s a summary ignorance & apathy.

Environmental damage is something that's invisible or immediate but money is not going to bring back any amount of splendour that's lost in the process of 'development'. We don’t have Carbon Trust in India as we have one in UK. It’s a misconception that upkeep of environment is a costly enterprise. On the contrary it’s a money-minting exercise. GoI and state govts keep silent or in a mutually beneficial relation with the industrialists i.e. collusion and bribery.

Bhopal is one of the greatest tragedies of India and no lesson is learnt till date. Conscientious activists may write books & novels and get acclaimed by the western world but we are never going to learn anything from any kinda tragedy in India.