August 09, 2008
Bhopal gas survivors end four-month dharna
NEW DELHI: Bhopal gas leak survivors ended their four-month-long dharna here on Friday after the Centre formally announced the setting up of an Empowered Commission and promised legal action on the civil and criminal liabilities of Union Carbide and Dow Chemicals.
Thousands of people died when a toxic gas leaked out of the Union Carbide plant in the Madhya Pradesh capital in December 1984. The company has since merged with Dow Chemicals.
Allocation of resources
Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said the commission, to be set up after approval from the Group of Ministers, would allocate resources for rehabilitation schemes or research projects, issue tenders and identify the implementing Central and State government agencies.
It could also change the agencies, if their work was unsatisfactory.
The commission would be headed by a sitting judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court and would have four other members. The draft of the commission had been sent to the Law and Finance Ministries for approval.
Mr. Paswan pointed out that the Madhya Pradesh High Court had said the decision on fixing responsibility on Dow Chemicals to provide Rs. 100 crore for hazardous waste clean-up would be taken later.
Both the Central and State governments had contributed Rs. 50 crore each. The issues of tender process for appointing an agency to carry out the clean-up and the site where the hazardous waste would be disposed of were still to be finalised.
Mr. Paswan said the government had forwarded to the Planning Commission a Rs. 982.75-crore rehabilitation proposal submitted by Madhya Pradesh.
Expressing happiness over the fresh announcements, activists of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmachari Sangh, the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha and the Bhopal Group for Information and Action said they were assured that the scope of the commission would include environmental, social, economic and medical rehabilitation.
The organisations expressed the hope that the panel would also take up the disposal of thousands of tonnes of hazardous waste dumped by the factory management at the accident site.
Posted by tim at 03:18 PM | Comments (0)
Tata plan to clean Dow damage rejected
Calcutta Telegraph, August 9, 2008
New Delhi, Aug. 8: The Centre has rejected industrialist Ratan Tata’s proposal that Indian companies clean up the environmental damage in Bhopal caused by the 1984 gas disaster.
Chemicals minister Ram Vilas Paswan today said the Group of Ministers (GoM) handling the case had rejected Tata’s proposal since it effectively “absolves” US firm Dow Chemicals of its liabilities.
Dow now owns Union Carbide, whose factory had leaked the deadly gas that killed and maimed thousands and continues to pollute groundwater in Bhopal 24 years later.
The Centre is seeking a Rs 500-crore compensation from Dow for environmental damages in a case filed in Jabalpur High Court. But letters Tata wrote last year to Planning Commission deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia and India’s envoy to the US, Ronen Sen, had raised concerns among Bhopal victims that the government might withdraw the case.
The letters, made public under the RTI, included the proposal that a group of Indian companies clean up the chemical waste from the leak. A report by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute revealed dangerous levels of chemical remnants from the tragedy in Bhopal’s groundwater.
The GoM, headed by human resource development minister Arjun Singh, will ask the CBI to speed up the extradition of Warren Anderson, Union Carbide boss at the time of the leak, Paswan said.
Posted by tim at 03:16 PM | Comments (0)
August 08, 2008
Bhopal victims end protest after Indian govt pledge
Agence France Presse, August 8, 2008
NEW DELHI (AFP) — Victims of India's 1984 Bhopal gas leak which killed thousands of people ended months of sit-in protests on Friday after the government promised new assistance.
About 70 people affected by the gas leak had camped on a New Delhi pavement for more than three months after walking 800 kilometres (500 miles) from Bhopal city to the capital.
The government would set up a powerful commission to ensure better "rehabilitation" for victims and their families, chemicals minister Ram Vilas Paswan told the protesters.
The Bhopal disaster occurred when a storage tank at a pesticide plant spewed deadly cyanide gas into the air, killing more than 3,500 people immediately.
The death toll has since climbed to more than 15,000, the government says.
Activists and protesters want the site to be cleared of thousands of tonnes of toxic waste embedded in the soil, as well as jobs and compensation.
"The government today promised to set up a new panel with more powers to look into medical, environmental and economic support," said Rachna Dhingra, spokeswoman for a Bhopal victims group.
Activists said survivors would be represented on the panel.
"I was 28-years-old then. Our fight has been going on for 24 years, and we will keep up the pressure on the government," said survivor Hazari Bee.
Posted by tim at 06:31 PM | Comments (0)
Bhopal gas tragedy victims rejoice agreement with Govt.
Tha Indian news, August 8, 2008
New Delhi , August 8 (ANI): Survivors of the Bhopal Gas tragedy, one of the worst industrial tragedies in the country on Friday celebrated government assurance to set up a commission to look into the grievances of the victims.
More than 3,500 people died in the days and weeks after toxic fumes spewed out of a pesticide plant in Bhopal on the night of December 2, 1984.
Officials say nearly 15,000 people have died from cancer and other diseases since then.
Activists have put the toll at 33,000 and claim that toxins from thousands of tonnes of chemicals lying in and around the site have seeped into ground water.
The activists fighting for the victims rejoiced after Union Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister Ram Vilas Paswan met them and told them about the decision of the government to set up a commission.
One of the demands of the activists was to form an empower commission. The government has decided to form the commission. We have asked the State government to arrange for the office of the commission and as soon as that is done the commission will start working, Paswan told reporters in New Delhi .
Secondly, there was an allegation that the Dow Chemicals has registered four insecticides with the Agricultural Ministry. The Ministry has taken note of it and called for a Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) inquiry into it, he added.
D. Raja, a senior Communist leader accompanied Paswan who assured the protesters that his party will ensure that the decisions of the committee are implemented properly.
The empowered commission which has been accepted by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government should not be one of those commissions set up by the government finally forgotten and this commission will have to address the demands raised by the victims of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy. If the commission does not work and do justice for the victims of tragedy then my party, Communist Party of India will take up the issue once again in the parliament and we will fight the government,” Raja said.
Union Carbide in 1984 accepted moral responsibility for the tragedy and established a 100 million dollars charitable trust fund to build a hospital for the victims. Later Union Carbide was taken over by Dow Chemicals.
The company also paid 470 million dollars to the government in 1989 in a settlement reached after a protracted legal battle. The victims were paid 25,000 rupees in case of illness and 100,000 rupees or so to the next of kin of those killed.
Michigan-based Dow Chemical says it is not responsible for the clean up as it never owned or operated the plant.
The Madhya Pradesh government now owns the abandoned plant. (ANI)
Posted by tim at 05:25 PM | Comments (0)
Govt to set up Empowered Commission on Bhopal gas disaster
Press Trust of India, August 8, 2008
New Delhi, Aug 8 (PTI) Giving in to demands of Bhopal gas tragedy survivors, the Government today announced that an Empowered Commission will be set up to look into all aspects of rehabilitation of the victims and cleaning-up of hazardous waste lying in the area.
Union Minister for Chemical and Fertilisers Ram Vilas Paswan made the announcement at Jantar Mantar in the national capital, where the survivors of the country's worst industrial disaster have been protesting for the last 130 days.
"The Group of Ministers (GoM) constituted to oversee the matters related to the 1984 gas leak disaster has decided that an Empowered Commission will be set up," Paswan said after offering sweets to several protestors who were on a relay hunger strike in support of their demands.
"A draft proposal on terms of reference and modalities will be prepared and the panel could come up as soon as the state government provides land and other facilities for the office," the Minister, flanked by CPI leader D Raja, said.
The CBI will expedite investigation into allegations that US-based Dow Chemicals, which has purchased the Union Carbide, bribed Agricultural Ministry officials for the registration of four pesticides manufactured by it, he said.
On disposal of waste, Paswan said the Government will not accept a proposal by the Tatas to take up the operation as it comes with a condition that the court case against Dow Chemicals, seeking to make it pay the clean-up cost, would have to be withdrawn. PTI
Posted by tim at 05:23 PM | Comments (0)
Bhopal gas victims, govt call truce
Business Standard, August 8, 2008
The Centre today reached an agreement with those protesting for medical relief for the Bhopal gas tragedy victims and environmental recovery of the site of the Union Carbide plant from where the gas leak had occurred in 1984.
The organisations representing the victims today announced that they would call off their three-month-old agitation tomorrow. This was after the government agreed to form an autonomous commission to take care of medical, social and environmental grievances of the victims as well as the contamination of ground water by the toxic waste that has been dumped at the site.
Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilisers Ram Vilas Paswan will tomorrow announce the government’s willingness to continue to demand the compensation amount from the company. Dow has been refusing to accept responsibility.
However, the end of the agitation, being carried out from New Delhi, will hardly be the end of troubles for Dow Chemicals as most agitating groups will now put their weight behind a Dow Quit India agitation, to be launched from Pune on August 9. Dow’s R&D centre in a village in Chakan, Pune, was recently razed by Warkaris, the devotees of Sant Tukaram.
The sect, which has thousands of followers in Maharashtra, owned up to the offence and has vowed to oust Dow from Pune. The agitation, beginning in Pune, will have 100,000 Warkaris joining on the first day, says Sarangi. Dow Chemicals continues to maintain that it is being targeted for no reason.
“For 16 years, the National Chemical Laboratory has been functioning in Pune and that was what prompted Dow to set up its R&D centre in Pune. It is unfortunate that the villagers are being misled,” said a spokesperson for the company.
Posted by tim at 12:11 AM | Comments (0)
August 03, 2008
CIC allows inspection of file on RIL
Rahul Mangaonkar, Times of India, August 3, 2008
AHMEDABAD: Did the Department of Industry Policy & Promotion (DIPP) consider the recommendation made by the Department of Chemicals and Fertilizers while giving the nod to Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) for purchasing technology from Dow Chemical Company (DCC)?
This will now become clear as the Central Information Commission (CIC) has ordered DIPP to allow petitioner Dharmesh Shah to inspect the file giving approval for installation of 'Unipol PP fluidized gas process technology' at RIL units in Hazira and Jamnagar , under Right to Info r m at i o n (RTI) Act.
Shah had under RTI sought information on seven points pertaining to the proposals for foreign collaboration and approval given for installation of the Unipol PP technology at RIL units.
DCC took over Union Carbide (UC) in 2001 and Shah produced documents before CIC to point out that the gas process technology was the intellectual property of UC. And due to the Bhopal gas tragedy such technology cannot be freely allowed to be sold to an Indian company.
Shah stated that as UC is a criminal absconder in the eyes of Indian courts, the details of the technology tie-up between DCC and RIL be made public.
CIC found that while chemicals and fertilizers department had given this recommendation , it found no indication whether DIPP had taken this into account before giving approval.
Therefore CIC agreed there was a overriding public interest in the issue, and allowed Shah to inspect the files regarding approval.
rahul.mangaonkar@timesgroup .com
Posted by tim at 11:01 PM | Comments (0)
July 29, 2008
Limited victory
AJOY ASHIRWAD MAHAPRASHASTA AND V. VENKATESAN, Frontline, Volume 25 - Issue 16 : Aug. 02-15, 2008
The survivors of the Bhopal gas tragedy secure from the government promises to implement part of their demands.
AT a small park in New Delhi on June 21, a few children, aged between five and 15, from Bhopal made paper hearts and wrote messages on them. It was their way of telling Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to have a heart and do justice to the survivors of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy.
These children, along with the survivors and activists, began a dharna at Jantar Mantar on March 28, agitated outside the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on June 9, and courted imprisonment following their unique “die-in” protest by lying on the ground with shrouds covering their bodies. Nine activists began an indefinite hunger strike on June 10. They ended their fast after 22 days but nine others took over from them. The agitation, led by the Bhopal Group for Information and Action (BGIA), demonstrates what Gandhian methods of peaceful protest and self-inflicted suffering can achieve. The agitators undertook a gruelling 500-mile (800 km) walk, which lasted 38 days, from Bhopal to New Delhi on February 20 in order to strengthen their resolve to fight for their rights and also build public opinion.
Their peaceful agitation did not go in vain. A set of documents procured by the activists from the PMO under the Right to Information Act reveals the government’s thinking on some of the major demands put forward by the agitators.
These include a Commission on Bhopal, specially empowered by the Prime Minister, to plan and carry out medical, economic, social and environmental rehabilitation of the gas victims and civil action for environmental and health damage caused by soil and water contamination by taking appropriate legal action against Union Carbide and Dow Chemical Company (DCC), which owns it now.
The meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) on Bhopal Gas Leak Disaster, which was held on April 17, decided to take further action on setting up the commission in consultation with the Ministry of Law and Justice. It also decided to request the Health Ministry to consider continuing the research carried out by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on the effects of the gas leak on the survivors and their families.
A contentious issue was the approval given by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion for the foreign technical collaboration (FTC) between the Dow Global Technologies and Reliance Petroleum Limited, which would facilitate the import of UNIPOL-PP, a technological process patented by Union Carbide to manufacture polypropylene, a thermoplastic used chiefly for electrical insulation and packaging.
The Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals, (DC&PC), the nodal department dealing with the aftermath of the gas tragedy, sought a reconsideration of the approval. It submitted that any future investment of Dow Chemical should be allowed only after the company met the Central government’s submission in the ongoing case in the Madhya Pradesh High Court. In this case, the DC&PC has, as an interim measure, sought Rs.100 crore from the DCC towards environmental remediation of the gas leak disaster site.
The Law Ministry has, however, disagreed with the DC&PC’s view. It held that the two issues of site remediation and approval of the FTC were unrelated. The Ministry also opined that it was almost impossible to foresee what view a court of law might take in the absence of any precedent.
The Law Ministry, nevertheless, shared the DC&PC’s stand on the question of Dow Chemical’s liability. It opined that it was doubtful whether by virtue of any clause in a merger agreement, companies could wipe out any liability incurred under any law or judicial decisions. “Any such liability unless extinguished by discharge of the liability or by any law, cannot evaporate in thin air. Any clause in an agreement between parties will be against the public policy and will be void and unenforceable in Indian courts,” it said in its opinion given to the Department of Chemicals.
On May 29, Prithviraj Chavan, Minister of State in the PMO, revealed on behalf of the Prime Minister that the government had sanctioned a project under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission to provide safe drinking water through pipelines from the Kolar Reservoir to the 14 localities situated in the vicinity of the abandoned site of Union Carbide of India Limited (UCIL). The Bhopal Municipal Corporation would be responsible for executing the project, which is slated to be ready by the end of the year. This was one of the long-pending demands of the gas victims.
On June 3, Manmohan Singh convened a meeting to discuss the issues relating to Bhopal gas survivors. The minutes of this meeting, as revealed under the RTI Act, show that the government took several decisions. Those present at the meeting included, Prithviraj Chavan; K.M. Chandrasekhar, Cabinet Secretary; V.S. Sampath, Secretary, DC&PC; and senior officials from the PMO. The decisions taken at the meeting partly satisfy the demands of the agitators.
The meeting decided to ask the DC&PC to submit to the GoM a detailed proposal to set up the Commission on Bhopal. The Department was also asked to obtain from the State government a detailed plan of action for the rehabilitation schemes as decided by the GoM and take appropriate action.
It was decided that the DC&PC would expedite the site remediation, particularly the task of transporting the toxic waste for incineration and to the designated landfill. More important, the Department would request the Law Ministry to appoint a senior lawyer to pursue the application filed by it before the High Court seeking an advance of Rs.100 crore from Dow Chemical and two other companies for remediation of the site of the gas leak.
The meeting directed the Ministry of Agriculture to pursue the investigations into the allegation that its officials had taken bribes for the registration of four pesticides by DCC, with the Central Bureau of Investigation for an early and appropriate resolution of the matter. The Ministry has registered three pesticides patented by Dow to be sold in India. They are Dursban, Pride and Nurelle. The Committee of Secretaries convened by the Cabinet Secretary on May 30 recorded that the Registration Committee in the Ministry did not find any compromise on the efficacy of the pesticides.
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission filed a settled civil action in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on February 13, 2007, alleging that DCC violated the books and records and internal controls provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in connection with an estimated $200,000 in improper payments made by a fifth-tier foreign subsidiary of Dow Chemical to Indian government officials from 1996 through 2001. Without admitting or denying the allegations in the commission’s complaint, DCC consented to pay a $325,000 civil penalty. ’
The police remove children who staged a demonstration outside the Prime Minister’s residence in New Delhi. Pic: V. SUDERSHAN
The gas leak survivors and the activists working among them are satisfied that their five-month-long agitation has yielded at least partial results. The BGIA wants the proposed Commission on Bhopal to be set up through an Act of Parliament, with a tenure of 30 years and a budget of Rs.2,000 crore, to deal with the rehabilitation of the survivors of the disaster and their progeny and provide them with proper living conditions. According to Satinath Sarangi of the BGIA, the 30-year term is necessary as there will be many more people, yet to be born, who will still be affected by the harmful effects of the disaster.
It appears that there will be considerable debate over the proposed terms of reference of the Commission. According to Sarangi, the commission should have the power to summon the officials of DCC so as to make the company liable to the survivors of the disaster. It remains to be seen whether the government will agree to this suggestion from the activists, who are likely to be involved in drafting the terms of reference of the commission.
The activists are also satisfied with the government’s decision to pursue the case of legal liability for the disaster against DCC despite pressures to dilute this charge to facilitate investments in India by DCC.
However, the activists are unhappy that there has been no substantive commitment on reversing the approval given to Reliance Industries to purchase the UNIPOL technology.
At the GoM held on July 11, Union Ministers Arjun Singh and Ram Vilas Paswan agreed that the permission given to Reliance Industries should be revoked, but a decision could not be taken as another Minister, Kamal Nath, reportedly disagreed with the suggestion.
But the meeting, according to informed sources, decided that there would not be any more transfer of UCC-patented technology to India.
The activists are also disappointed that the government has not been sincere in seeking extradition from the U.S. of Warren Anderson, the UCC chief at the time of the disaster. He continues to be a fugitive before the Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Bhopal, where the criminal case regarding the disaster is being heard.
The activists and the survivors of the disaster will end their current agitation in the national capital once the PMO issues a directive to the DC&PC to prepare a blueprint for the proposed commission.
So far, they have secured only a limited victory, and this was made possible by sheer perseverance, good organisation and novel forms of protests.
Posted by tim at 02:13 PM | Comments (0)
July 14, 2008
IITians protest Dow sponsorship of golden jubilee celebration
Mumbai/New Delhi, July 14 (IANS) Hundreds of former and present students, including many faculty members of the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B), have protested acceptance of sponsorship by an alumni group from US-based Dow Chemicals for a golden jubilee conference in New York July 18-20. Addressing the media in Mumbai Monday, Janak Daftari, an IIT-B alumni, said: “A group of IIT-B alumni, mostly from Silicon Valley, in total disregard to the sentiments and the callous practices being followed by the firm in their (alumini’s) origin country, has gone ahead and under the aegis of IIT-Bombay Heritage Fund are organizing a two-day golden jubilee function in New York between July 18-20.”
The Bhopal gas tragedy, which is often considered as one of the world’s biggest industrial disasters, took place December 3, 1984. A Union Carbide subsidiary pesticide plant released 40 tonnes of methyl isocyanate, which killed more than 3,800 people and affected many thousand more. The Dow Chemicals now owns Union Carbide.
Daftari said that over 1,000 students signed a petition last year urging the IITs to debar Dow from on-campus recruitment or sponsoring programs, “purely because of Dow’s mishandling of its subsidiary Union Carbide’s environmental and criminal liabilities in Bhopal and its disregard for Indian courts.”
He said the company was forced to call off its recruitment plans in Mumbai, Chennai, Kharagpur and New Delhi and “IIT Kanpur and IIT Delhi returned Dow’s sponsorship at the last minute, succumbing to pressure from alumni, faculty and students”.
“It is a sheer irony that in 2005, the organisers of Global IIT Conference in the US, cancelled their invitation to the then CEO of Dow, William Stavropoulos. And here the IIT-B Heritage Fund has gone ahead and not just accepted the sponsorship but has even put the firm at the pedestal of gold sponsor,” Daftari said.
Asked whether IIT authorities have given any approval to the contentious event, Daftari said an invitation has been sent to all senior members of the institution.
“Obviously, the golden jubilee celebration is being done privately but then there is a tacit approval from the senior administrators. After all they are seriously contemplating to attend the event even though scores of faculty members have opposed the sponsorship itself,” he said.
In Delhi, Ravi Kuchimanchi, another alumni, said he, like scores of others, was shocked that the organisers of the conference could even think of associating themselves with a company that has caused such an enormous disaster and given birth to innumerable tales of agony.
“In 1984 when the gas leaked in Bhopal, I and other students in IIT-Bombay were shocked and angry. Today I am shocked to see, instead of forcing Dow to fork up money and clean up the Bhopal site, the organisers of the 50th anniversary celebrations have sought its money. As IIT alumni we can do better,” a disappointed Kuchimanchi said in a press statement in the national capital.
Posted by tim at 08:46 PM | Comments (0)