New Delhi, June 24: The Government of India on Thursday approved recommendations by a Group of Ministers on the Bhopal gas disaster which include appealing for the extradition of former Union Carbide boss Warren Anderson .
The cabinet decision comes three days after the re-constituted GoM, headed by Union Home Minister Chidambaram, submitted its report to the Prime Minister with several suggestions related to compensation and proper rehabilitation of victims.
“Additional material for the extradition of Warren Anderson is being put together by the external affairs ministry and other agencies. We will thereafter press for Anderson’s extradition,” Information and Broadcasting Minister said after a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Anderson has been absconding and the US has in the past rejected requests to make him stand trial in India. He was allowed to escape by the then CM of Madhya Pradesh, Arjun Singh, who reportedly got the order from the Rajiv Gandhi govt in Centre.
The government is also looking at liablity of Dow Chemicals, which has acquired Union Carbide, she said.
The cabinet approved the GoM recommendation cash compensation amounting to a total of about Rs 1,500 crore out of which Rs 10 lakh are for each family of the dead, Rs 5 lakh for completely disabled and Rs 3 lakh for partially disabled victims and Rs 2 lakh for those affected by Cancer.
It will also file a curative petition against the 1996 Supreme Court judgement, which diluted criminal charges against Union Carbide. Filing a curative petition means government will appeal for tougher punishment against the main accused in higher courts.
Soni said that the attorney general will be examining if a “curative petition” can be filed in the Supreme Court.
On the cleaning up of the toxic waste, the government has agreed to give Rs 350 crore to the Madhya Pradesh government for the same. It will clean up the factory site by December 31, 2010.
The Bhopal Memorial Hospital will also be managed by the government.
The GoM was reconstituted late last month, ahead of the June 7 verdict of a Bhopal court sentencing seven Indian executives of Union Carbide to only two years in jail. They were immediately granted bail.
The judgement sparked outrage in the country, prompting the prime minister to direct the GoM to present its report within 10 days. After holding four sessions last week, the GoM presented its report Monday.
The GoM was originally set up in 2008.
—Agencies