By IANS,
New Delhi : The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Tuesday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to call an all-party meeting to review a ministerial panel’s recommendations on the Bhopal gas leak before finalising the compensation to the victims of the 1984 tragedy.
CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat appreciated Manmohan Singh’s “intention to take a speedy decision on the payment of enhanced compensation, medical treatment and the clean up measures to be taken at the site of the (abandoned Union Carbide) plant in Bhopal”.
In a letter to the prime minister, Karat said since providing justice and adequate compensation for the victims of the gas tragedy had dragged on for 26 years, “it is important that the views of the large number of people affected should be taken into account.
“I would request you to call a meeting of all political parties along with the representatives of the organisations of gas victims where the recommendations made by the (group of ministers) GoM can be discussed.”
The prime minister-appointed GoM led by Home Minister P. Chidambaram Monday submitted its recommendations seeking enhanced relief package for the victims of the world’s worst industrial disaster in 1984.
According to the panel recommendations, Rs.10 lakh will be given to the next of kin of the dead, Rs.5 lakh for the permanently disabled and Rs.3 lakh for those with partial disability.
In a separate statement, the CPI-M demanded that Dow Chemical, which took over Union Carbide in 2001, should be made liable for the damages and compensation.
“There is no serious effort to make Dow Chemical liable for the damages and compensation. The entire expenses for the remediation and environmental clean up at the Bhopal factory site should be borne by Dow,” the CPI-M statement said.
However, it welcomed the GoM recommendation for a curative petition against a Supreme Court order that diluted the charges against the accused in the Bhopal gas leak.
The Left party said restarting of the Bhopal unit of the Indian Council of Medical Research and takeover by the government of the Bhopal Memorial Hospital Trust was also “welcome”.
But the “compensation package offered is based on flawed estimation of deaths and injuries and the amount of compensation offered remains meagre”, it said, adding that these isses could be discussed at the all-party meeting before the cabinet takes its final decision in its proposed meeting Friday.