Facing Bhopal flak, Centre rejigs GoM

The Bhopal gas tragedy verdict continued to roil the political firmament, forcing the Centre to reconstitute a Group of Ministers on Wednesday to go into a “range of issues” on the world’s worst industrial disaster in 1984, including relief and rehabilitation for the victims.

The Union home minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, will head the 10-member body.

The GoM under Mr Chidambaram will comprise Union ministers, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mr Jairam Ramesh, Mr S. Jaipal Reddy, Mr M.K. Alagiri and Mr Kamal Nath.

The Madhya Pradesh minister in charge of rehabilitation will be part of the GoM.

The decision to reconstitute the GoM came amid a growing uproar as more skeletons tumbled out of how former Union Carbide Corporation chairman Warren Anderson was given bail immediately after his December 1984 arrest.

Meanwhile, with questions being raised over its role in Anderson’s non-extradition in Bhopal case, the external affairs ministry said it has time and again requested for his extradition, which has been turned down by the US for want of more “evidential links”.

Maintaining that the ministry has “renewed the request for an extradition on a number of occasions from the time it was first made in 2003 to September 2008, when the last request was made,” a senior official said the MEA will “proceed on the basis of the collective decision of the government” on the issue.

“We will proceed on the basis of the collective decision of the government now. The government of India will take a decision how to move forward, legal authorities will be consulted... Government of India will take a decision, and we will proceed accordingly.”