Bhopal panel recommends enhanced Rs.72 crore compensation

NEW DELHI - The ministerial panel on the Bhopal gas tragedy Monday recommended additional compensation of Rs.72 crore for the families of the victims of the 1984 industrial disaster but who were not included in the list of the dead.

Around 4,000 people will benefit from the new package, an official said. The recommendation came after the Group of Ministers, formed to look into various aspects of the 26-year-old industrial catastrophe, met here.

The meeting was convened to take stock of the progress made since the GoM submitted its recommendations to the cabinet in June this year.

The ministers, led by Home Minister P. Chidambaram, also decided to find a new site for disposing of the toxic wastes lying at the Union Carbide plant site in Bhopal.

In June, the government had accepted all the 22 recommendations of the panel and decided to push for extradition of former Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson and ascertain the liability of Dow Chemicals, which owns Union Carbide, besides announcing Rs.1,265.56 crore package for relief and remediation.

Union Carbide settled its liabilities to the Indian government in 1989 by paying $470 million before being bought by Dow Chemicals.

Thousands of people were killed in the early hours of Dec 3, 1984, when around 40 metric tonnes of toxic methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas leaked from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal. Thousands of others suffered severe health problems over the years.