New Delhi, June 15: This is not an agenda of a routine meeting in a government office.
These are some of the ‘ issues’ that dominated the first highlevel group of ministers ( GoM) on Bhopal appointed in 1992, which was headed by Manmohan Singh, the then finance minister.
Eighteen years after successive GoMs failed to resolve issues such as relief and rehabilitation, medical follow- up, extradition of Warren Anderson and clean- up of the contaminated tragedy site, the Prime Minister gave the current GoM a 10- day deadline to assess the issues.
On Monday, Prime Minister Singh directed the newly constituted GoM to “ assess options and remedies available to the government on various issues involved”. He gave the group 10 days though successive GoMs, including the one headed by him, could not achieve much in the past 18 years.
While five GoMs were set up since 1992, they held just 17 meetings till June 2008 and failed to make any substantive progress on major issues.
An analysis of the minutes of the 17 meetings of the GoMs that took place between January 1992 and June 11 2008 — done by M AIL T ODAY — revealed that serious issues brought before ministers were tossed back and forth among different ministries of the central and state governments.
Or, the GoM took refuge in the fact that some aspects were subjudice.
As a result, all of them remain unresolved till date.
The documents were obtained under the Right to Information Act by the Bhopal Group for Information and Action.
For instance, it took nearly two decades of ‘ discussions’ in GoMs for the Madhya Pradesh government to submit an action plan worth Rs 982.75 crore in June 2008. As a matter of routine, the GoM forwarded it to the Planning Commission for comments. No GoM ever reprimanded the state government for submitting the action plan almost 25 years after the disaster.
Manomohan presided over eight of the 17 meetings of GoMs on Bhopal held till June 2008. Other GoMs between 1998 and 2008 were chaired by Yashwant Sinha, Arun Jaitley and Arjun Singh. On an average, the Bhopal GoM met just once a year.
The GoM under the chairmanship of Arjun Singh took two major decisions in 2008 — setting up of an empowered commission on Bhopal and asking the Indian Council of Medical Research to restart research in Bhopal. But these proposals were not initiated by the GoM. The ministers were forced to take these decisions after a group of victims walked all the way from Bhopal to Delhi and sat on hunger strike for over a month. The empowered commission is yet to be set up because the state government has opposed it.
The MP government, which was represented in all GoMs, kept seeking funds from the Centre and made tall claims about progress on medical rehabilitation. Its main demand was to include 20 unaffected wards in Bhopal in the list of gas- affected wards for electoral gains. On the other hand, the state government could not provide safe drinking water in areas affected by contamination of groundwater from the factory site. It was only after a hunger strike by survivors in Delhi that the Prime Minister released a sum of Rs 14 crore for the purpose in 2006.
On the issue of setting up a hospital with money from the Union Carbide Corporation, the GoM chaired by Manmohan suggested in December 1993 that the hospital be set up through money raised by selling shares attached by the court. The CBI had opposed release of attached funds saying “ if the attached property ( shares) is released, it shall have adverse effect on trial”. The law ministry said “ it is a matter of policy and needed a political decision”. But the GoM took no decision, letting the courts decide.
The Congress said it hoped the GoM would examine all aspects of Anderson’s escape, including his bail bond and the legal procedure that allowed him to leave.
REPORT CARD OF EARLIER GoMs
Action plan for rehabilitation: FAILED
GoM starts discussion in 1992
Plan finally submitted by MP government in 2008
Plan yet to be implemented Clean- up of factory site: FAILED
GoM starts discussion in 2000 under pressure from NGOs
No plan for clean- up
Instead of asking Dow Chemicals ( present owner of Union Carbide) to pay for clean- up, GoM focused on its investment plans and plea for absolving it of any liability Supply of
clean drinking water: FAILED GoM starts discussion in 1998
Some schemes were implemented in 2006, yet 20,000 people in the area drink contaminated water Empowered Commission: FAILED
GoM agrees to set up the empowered commission in 2008
Terms and conditions prepared, but Madhya Pradesh govt opposes move
Panel yet to be set up
—Agencies