India has moved from tongas to metro rail and typewriters to laptops between December 1984 and June 2008. But the unfinished tasks related to the Bhopal gas disaster of 1984 continue to remain like a blot on industry as well as the state and central governments.

The Government has agreed to set up a panel to help victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas leak, which has till now killed more than 15,000 people. On Thursday morning, Minister of State in the PMO Prithviraj Chavan visited Jantar Mantar where the Bhopal survivors have been protesting for the last two months and read out a two-page statement authorised by the Prime Minister. The statement said India would press the US company which now owns Union Carbide to clean up the site.

Aarti Dhar Centre will take initiative soon to work out modalities Committees on various rehabilitation aspects will be subsumed Drinking water from Kolar reservoir for localities around Carbide plant by year-end NEW DELHI: The Centre has agreed "in principle' to set up an empowered commission to rehabilitate the survivors and victims of the Bhopal gas leak that happened 23 years ago.

THE GOVERNMENT has finally lent an ear to the victims of Bhopal gas tragedy. But coming after 25 years it's certainly a case of too little too late. The government has accepted "in principle' their demand to set up a commission to carry out medical, economic, social and environmental rehabilitation of the victims. However, dissatisfaction persists as demands of legal action against Union Carbide and Dow Chemicals are yet to be met.

Q&A: Satinath Sarangi Satinath Sarangi of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action tells SREELATHA MENON that activists made a mistake by delaying raising the issue of removal of the 8,000 tonnes of toxic waste from Union Carbide's Bhopal plant. Where were you when the 1984 disaster in Bhopal took place and what brought you to work there among the survivors?

The Bhopal Gas Relief and Rehabilitation Department is talking to the Indian Army and the Delhi-based National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) to help remove the toxic waste lying in the premises of the closed Union Carbide for the last 24 years.

DEBATE The two issues that remain are whether Dow inherited Union Carbide's liabilities and why the government never cleaned up Bhopal after settling with Carbide Scot Wheeler, Director Communications, Dow Chemicals, Midland, US

the pleas of the 50 survivors of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, who reached Delhi on March 28, are far from being heard. Travelling over 800 km on foot, they came to the capital to remind the prime

Around 280 legal professionals, including retired judges and eminent lawyers from Pune and the state have submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister stating that the attempts by the Prime Minister's office to grant immunity to Dow Chemical from its Bhopal liabilities are unconstitutional and illegal.