How insensitive!!

Today is the 25th anniversary of the Worlds Worst Industrial Disaster - Bhopal Gas Leakage.

15,274 people died and 5,74,000 people were affected on December 2, 1984, when deadly methyl iso cyanate gas leaked from the Union Carbide factory.

Many say Union Carbide got away very easity by paying a meagre $ 470 million (Rs 715 crore) as damage. Each affected person was paid Rs 25,000 and the dead Rs 1 lakh, and that too more than 10 years after the disaster.

Many victims were denied justice as Union Carbide, the NGO's and the Government together did everything they could to get a fair deal for the vicims.

It is a moot point how much Union Carbide would have had to pay as actual damages and punitive damages were the accident to have happened in USA. Third world lives are indeed cheap.

The disaster is significant for the apathy shown by successive governments. The past 25 years have seen governments under Rajiv Gandhi, VP Singh, Chandrasekar, PV Narasimha Rao, IK Gujral, Deve Gowda, Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh. But none of these worthies have done anything to bring the culprit to justice. The cries to extradite the then Union Carbide Chief Warren Anderson has fallen on deaf years. No one has been punished and the compensation has been meagre by any yardstick.

Now to add insult to injury, the MP minister has requested the Centre to sanction Rs 116 crore to build a memorial for the victims. How insensitive!!!