GoM recommends Rs 1,300 cr package
PTI
NEW DELHI, JUNE 21
The Group of Ministers on Bhopal gas disaster today recommended a Rs 1,300 crore package for the victims enhancing the compensation for the kin of dead to Rs 10 lakh and for permanently disabled Rs five lakh.
The GoM, headed by Home Minister P Chidambaram, concluded four-day deliberations and submitted its report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, which will be considered by the Union Cabinet at a special meeting on Friday.
The Ministers recommended fresh steps to seek extradition of former chief of Union Carbide Warren Anderson and filing of a curative petition in the Supreme Court to restore stringent charges against the accused in the gas leak disaster that claimed over 15,000 lives nearly 26 years ago.
Surface Transport Minister Kamal Nath, a member of the GoM, told reporters that the dead would get Rs 10 lakh while the permanently disabled will get Rs five lakh, those temporarily disabled will get Rs 1 lakh.
Those afflicted by cancer and other serious ailments will get Rs 2 lakh, Nath said adding the money would be given after deducting payments already made to the victims. He said the Centre would foot Rs 750 crore in this regard.
Madhya Pradesh Minister Babulal Gaur, who is also a member of the GoM, expressed dissatisfaction over the package saying the state has demanded a Rs 5,000 crore package.
On the legal front, the GoM recommended that the Centre will file a curative petition in the Supreme Court to seek restoration of the stringent charges filed in the CBI chargesheet against the accused in the case.
In 1996 the apex court had reduced the charge from Section 304-Part II (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) to Section 304 A (criminal negligence) of IPC.
While Section 304 II provides a maximum imprisonment of 10 years, Section 304 A provides a maximum jail term of two years.
Chidambaram told reporters after the final meeting of the GoM that the Ministers have made “significant recommendations” and their immediate focus was “to bring relief to those people who had suffered as a result of the ghastly tragedy”.
The group is also believed to have cleared a proposal for clean up of the toxic site at the plant in Bhopal for burying the poisonous materials there itself. The job will be done by the Madhya Pradesh government for which the Central government will provide financial and technical assistance.
A sum of Rs 300 crore will be set apart for the clean up job, the sources said.
The GoM is also believed to have favoured the take over of Bhopal Memorial Trust hospital, set up in the aftermath of the tragedy.
It has earmarked Rs 230 crore for the upgradation of this and six other hospitals.
Altogether 5,295 people lost their lives immediately after the gas disaster while 10,047 others succumbed to various diseases in the following months.
Out of the 5,60,000 affected people, nearly 37,000 were permanently disabled while the rest received minor injuries.
