Even as the Supreme Court will hear on Wednesday two curative petitions filed by the CBI and the Union government in the Bhopal gas tragedy case, survivors have pointed out infirmities in the petition filed by the Centre.
“It is just a face-saving exercise by the Government of India against the international criticism it faced last year,” says Abdul Jabbar of the Bhopal Gas Peedith Mahila Udyog Sangathan.
“The petition overlooks incidents in the plant prior to the tragedy and fails to mention the 1988 order of the Bhopal CJM which required a comparison of the safety measures of the Union Carbide's West Virginia plant with those in its Bhopal plant,” says Mr. Jabbar.
The Madhya Pradesh government too, last week, moved the Supreme Court seeking permission to intervene in the curative petition in the criminal matter.
“The civil petition takes no note of aggravation of injuries, second and third generation health complications among survivors. Further, it overlooks the fact that only 5,295 death claims were accepted out of 15,274 claims,” says Mr. Jabbar.
