The agenda is likely to include demands from the civil society — from then Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson’s extradition to restoration of the original case on the accused under Section 304 IPC — on its plate.
While some of the issues have been put only to appease the clamour for action, increased compensation for victims is a realistic possibility given the political imperative of addressing the sense of injustice. The agenda reflects the government’s wish to douse public anger.
The GoM may be asked to consider revocation of approval to a top industrial house for ‘‘unipol technology’’. The technology, developed by Union Carbide and now a property of Dow, is used for manufacturing polyproplylene. Another issue to be considered by the GoM is that of cancellation of licences of four pesticides, which were linked to the mishap.
While the government, because of economic considerations, was veering towards accepting Dow’s insistence that it be treated as unrelated to Union Carbide, it will be interesting to see whether the changed political context leads to at least a pause, if not a rethink.
An ‘empowered special commission for monitoring of rehabilitation’ is high on the demand list but is reportedly being opposed by department of expenditure for its financial implication. The ministry for chemicals is also not in its favour as it is felt that while a ‘special commission on Bhopal’ is already in place.
The clean-up of the toxic site is a ticklish issue. It is among the immediate ones to be considered as it has been hanging fire for a long time and has generated controversy over the alleged lobbying by top UPA ministers to free Dow of liability for the tragedy.
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