New Delhi: Confronted with massive criticism for the verdict in the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, the government has reconstituted a panel of ministers to examine a range of issues.
The 10-member panel will be headed by Home Minister P Chidambaram and will also have union ministers Ghulam Nabi Azad, M Veerappa Moily, S Jaipal Reddy, Kamal Nath, Kumari Selja, M K Alagiri, Prithviraj Chavan, Jairam Ramesh and a minister in the Madhya Pradesh government as members, officials said.
During the UPA coalition's first term in office, the Bhopal tragedy was being examined by a Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Arjun Singh, who was chief minister of Madhya Pradesh in 1984 when a gas leak from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal choked the city. 20,000 people have died in the years since then. Because Singh is not a minister in the new UPA government, the GoM has been modified.
The GoM will examine all issues relating to Bhopal gas leakage including remedial measures and make appropriate recommendations relating to the relief and rehabilitation of the victims of the tragedy and their families, officials said.
On Monday, a Bhopal court found eight executives of Union Carbide India guilty of criminal negligence. Seven of them were sentenced to two years in prison; one had died during the course of the trial. Those convicted have been granted on bail. The people's verdict on that legal verdict: "Two Years for 20,000 Lives". Adding to the government's discomfort is new attention - at home and abroad - to the fact that Warren Anderson, then chairman of Union Carbide Corporation, has not faced trial, simply by ignoring repeated summons from Indian courts and investigators.
America refused, in 2003, to extradite Anderson, who lives in a wealthy suburban neighbourhood in New York.
Government sources say that another committee is likely to be set up to examine what policies are needed to deal with industrial disasters. (With PTI inputs)