A Rs 1,500 crore package for enhancing compensation for the kin of those who died and those debilitated in the Bhopal gas disaster was today finalised by a Group of Ministers (GoM).

Report with PM; Cabinet decides on Friday.

Pune The report on Dow Chemical International (Dow India) site at Chakan, Pune, submitted by the special committee formed by the state environment department in 2008, is gathering dust with the state government yet to release it. The report was submitted to the state government about eight months ago.

Shock, horror, outrage. Those were the dominant reactions when the world woke up to the nightmare of Bhopal on that December morning in 1984. Over 26 years later, those were again the dominant reactions following the judgement of the Bhopal district court last week which awarded a shamefully light two-year sentence to the seven accused in the world's worst industrial disaster.

The Group of Ministers on the Bhopal gas tragedy, which held its last meeting here Sunday and will submit its report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday, will recommend filing of a curative petition in the Supreme Court to fix criminal liability, seeking extradition of former UCC chief Warren Andreson and cleaning up toxic material from the Bhopal site.

The proceedings of the Empowered Group of Ministers does not inspire much confidence that the lakhs of victims of the catastrophic Bhopal gas leak will get justice. In fact, it almost seems as if a second betrayal is on the cards. There are reports that the EGoM wants the Madhya Pradesh government to bury and clean up the toxic waste.

Conflicting recollections on Bhopal tragedy highlight need to make old government papers public
Sanjaya Baru / New Delhi June 21, 2010, 0:54 IST

If the Bhopal judgment results in independent directors/CEOs/plant managers waking up to their responsibilities, that can only be a good thing
Sunil Jain / New Delhi June 21, 2010, 0:03 IST

More money for those affected by the Bhopal gas tragedy, a giant clean-up at the site of the tragedy, and new legal action to assign corporate responsibility for that effort - these are the star attractions of the remediation and rehabilitation plan that the government will consider, as it tries to erase its mistakes of the past.

John Elliott