14 June : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has directed the Group of Ministers headed by Home Minister P Chidambaram to meet immediately and report to the Cabinet within ten days.
The GoM has been asked to assess the options and remedies available to the government in the light of the Bhopal court’s verdict in the gas tragedy case.
“The Prime Minister has directed that the GoM headed by Home Minister and constituted to look into all issues relating to Bhopal gas disaster, may meet immediately to take stock of the situation arising out of the recent court judgement to assess the options and remedies available to the government on the various issues involved and to report to the Cabinet within ten days,” a PMO spokesman said on Monday.
The GoM was reconstituted last week to go into a range of issues including the relief and rehabilitation of victims and their families.
Nearly 26 years after the disaster left over 15,000 dead, former Union Carbide India Chairman Keshub Mahindra and six others were sentenced to two years imprisonment.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had on Sunday said Singh had taken the decision keeping in view the prevailing law and order situation.
GoM on Bhopal will probe circumstances that led to disaster: Azad
As the Prime Minister asked the Group of Ministers on Bhopal tragedy to meet immediately, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is a member of the GoM, has said the panel can probe under what circumstances the industrial disaster took place and how the punishment for the culprits was reduced.
“It can be probed under which circumstances it happened and under what circumstances he (Warren Anderson former Chairman of the Union Carbide) had to leave. What were the causes and how the punishment was reduced,” Azad told reporters on the sidelines of a function in New Delhi on Monday.
“Till now the GoM meeting has not been held. So I cannot discuss anything,” he said.
The GoM on the gas leak, headed by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, has Law Minister M Veerappa Moily, Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister M K Alagiri, Urban Development Minister S Jaipal Reddy, Science and Technology Minister Prithviraj Chauhan and Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Minister Kumari Selja as its members.
The minister said that when a meeting of the GoM will be held then, “we will be briefed by some competent authority which has been associated with this right through. Then we will come to some conclusions and definitely we will brief you”.
Asked whether then Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Arjun Singh should come out with his version on the issue, Azad said, “You can’t force anybody to speak the truth”.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has directed the Group of Ministers headed by Home Minister P Chidambaram to meet “immediately” and report to the Cabinet within ten days.
The GoM has been asked to assess the options and remedies available to the government in the light of the Bhopal court’s verdict in the gas tragedy case.
The GoM was reconstituted last week to go into a range of issues including the relief and rehabilitation of victims and their families.
Anderson sent out due to law and order situation: Pranab
Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said former Chief Minister Arjun Singh took the decision on then Union Carbide CEO’s exit keeping in view the law and order situation.
“The statement made by Mr. Singh as Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister five days after the Bhopal disaster had been published in a newspaper,” he told reporters in Kolkata on Sunday.
“It is very clear from the statement of Arjun Singh, which was published in The Times of India on December 8, 1984, that the law and order situation in Bhopal would have deteriorated and people’s frenzy and temper were running high. Therefore, it was thought necessary to send him (Anderson) out of Bhopal,” he said.
He was asked if the Congress was trying to shield Singh on the issue of exit of Anderson from the country.
On whether the government was considering Anderson’s extradition to India, Mukherjee said the government would look into the legal avenues available for the possible extradition.
“Though we cannot comment on the court judgement, we have to go to a higher judiciary where there is an appellate provision. We will appeal there,” he said.
