Posts Tagged ‘Union Carbide’
There is no end to the tales of official bungling in the schemes prepared for providing assistance to the Bhopal gas affected people. After the disaster following the leak of MiC gas from Union Carbide Corporation’s pesticide plant in December 1984, a “step-up scheme” was started to provide training-cum-employment to the surviving victims. Under the scheme the affected people were to be given training in various vocations. They were then to be provided financial assistance to start their own business (75 per cent bank loan and 25 per cent government grant). The total number of beneficiaries: 263. Under another scheme, 3600 persons were to be trained in 40 vocations every year from 1990-91 to 1998-99. Only 4800 persons were trained when the scheme was stopped.
Then another programme of imparting vocational training to the affected people was started in 1986. Only 8,000 persons were given the training. But that also served no purpose, as the follow-up assistance was not provided to them for starting their own business.
On October 5, 1987, Union Minister of Industries J. Vengal Rao laid the foundation stone of a “special industrial area” where industrial units were to be set up for giving employment to the Bhopal gas victims exclusively. About 10,000 persons were to be given direct employment by early 1990 in the first phase; 170 worksheds for the first phase were constructed well on time.
The projects envisaged setting up of small and medium scale industrial units over a 21 hectare piece of land in the Govindpura Industrial Area of Bhopal for exclusive employment of the gas leak victims. The industrialists were to be invited for setting up their units in which heavy labour would not be required. The electronics industry and the diamond cutting industry were identified, to begin with, as suited to the requirement.
The government, on its part, had promised to provide to these units the incentives and facilities available to the industrial units in backward districts as a special case because Bhopal is not a backward district. These included grants to the extent of 15 per cent and sales tax exemption for seven years.
The scheme was abruptly abandoned. The sheds constructed for setting up industrial units for the gas affected people were allotted by the BJP government of Sunderlal Patwa as barracks to the Rapid Action Force (RAF).
- In: Bhopal Gas
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Dr Heeresh Chandra, one of the country’s foremost forensic experts, was of the opinion that the US multinational Union Carbide Corporation (UCC)had experimented on the Indians some deadly chemical for use in a future biological warfare. Dr Chandra was involved in the investigations of post-mortem blood and tank residues. Phosgene and cyanide, the two most deadly chemicals, were also found in the blood of the victims, though these two chemicals had no business to be stored in the plant which was supposed to manufacture pesticides. (Phosgene was “effectively used as a combat gas during the First World War”. It is a severe irritant to the entire respiratory tract).
Dr Heeresh Chandra’s theory is supported by the findings of Swedish medical practitioner Ingrid Eckerman who was a member of the now-dissolved International Medical Commission on Bhopal (IMCB) and had been visiting Bhopal frequently in connection with her research. She says in her book, “Bhopal Saga: Causes and Consequences of the World’s Largest Industrial Disaster”: “according to reports seized from the Research and Development centre of the plant at Bhopal as well as documents traced from other offices of the firm, the (Union Carbide) Corporation had conducted a number of experiments on animals and plants, and was aware of the effects of MiC. It is likely that they had information not only on short-term effects, but also on medium and long-term effects”.
She says in her book: “a Research and Development unit was set up in Bhopal in 1976. The centre, the biggest in Asia, had five insect-rearing laboratories and a two-hectare experimental farm for testing chemical agents. Here, new molecules were synthesised and tested. It appeared that the UCIL (Union Carbide India Limited) was conducting (from 1975) field studies using new chemical agents without getting the projects cleared by the top-level committee where all collaborative research efforts should be screened from a security angle”.
She then refers to the reports about the presence of chemical warfare experts at Bhopal studying MiC’s effects (after the disaster). “For example, it is known that from the Pentagon, a medical doctor was sent to collect military intelligence regarding the effects of the leaked gases. From Sweden (her own country), two doctors were sent to make a report for the National Defence Research Institute”.
- In: Bhopal Gas
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On December 3 falls the 28th anniversary of the Bhopal Gas Leak Disaster. The survivors and their sympathisers will observe the ritual, as they always have, of holding prayer meetings, taking out processions, shouting slogans against the authorities and burning the effigies of former Union Carbide chairman Warren Anderson.
The ritual over, these hapless survivors will return to their desultory life, hoping for some miracle that would make their living a little less miserable. All they need is medicine, uncontaminated drinking water and some means of sustaining their life. They have spent all these years in the hope of this miracle. The governments at the Centre and in the State have made every effort to deny them these basic necessities —- the Central government which had, by an Act of Parliament, taken upon the role of the guardian of the families affected by the MiC gas leak from Union Carbide’s pesticide plant, and the State government which has the responsibility of implementing the projects aimed at providing succour to the survivors.
An important issue ignored by the authorities so far is why Union Carbide was using poison in its pesticide plant in Bhopal.
The presence of cyanide and phosgene in the blood of the victims and in the residue of the storage tank immediately after the disaster on December 2-3,1984 had puzzled the scientists because these two chemicals are not required to manufacture pesticides. While high concentration of hydrogen cyanide was found in air samples close to the tank two to three days after the leakage, phosgene was also smelt close to the tank during the release.
The vapour of hydrogen cyanide “may be followed by almost instantaneous collapse and cessation of respiration”. Cyanide can also accumulate in the body. Then the common symptoms are headache, dizziness, nausea and weakness. Less common are rash, increased sweating, dyspnoea, weight loss and irritability, besides, many other “unspecified symptoms”.
Phosgene was “effectively used as a combat gas during the First World War”. It is a severe irritant to the entire respiratory tract.
The Indian authorities did not even seek an explanation from the Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) about the presence of these two chemicals, as these were not required for making pesticides.
The Madhya Pradesh government has once again increased by one year the tenure of the Kochar Commission inquiring into various aspects of the Bhopal gas leak disaster of 1984. The Commission was constituted in August 2010. Its working in the last two years suggests only one thing: chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan wanted to oblige S L Kochar by providing him a sinecure for some favour done by him either as lawyer or a member of the judiciary.
The farcical June 7, 2010 judgement of the Bhopal Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) handed down to the disaster accused by treating them like VVIPs in the court and bailing them out in the same breath in which the two-year prison term was announced gave the wily Chauhan the idea of setting up the Commission for Kochar who was not even retired by then. The Commission started functioning nearly a year after the chief minister’s announcement to constitute it.
The terms of reference announced by the government were laudable enough: the commission was asked to inquire if the rules and regulations were complied with while setting up the Union Carbide plant, if adequate measures were taken by Union Carbide to prevent mishaps, and if adequate safety measures were installed by Union Carbide for the disposal of the hazardous waste after the 1984 disaster. More importantly, the Commission would inquire into the role of the State government (then headed by Arjun Singh) and others in the arrest, release and in providing safe passage to Union Carbide chairman Warren Anderson, and any other matter arising out of or incidental to these issues.
Had Kochar been honest about his assignment, he would have first tried to procure the documents collected by the first judicial commission which then chief minister Arjun Singh had constituted to assuage the worldwide outrage over the disaster. Once the public anger had subsided, the judicial commission was wound up. But in the eight or nine months that the commission was functional, it was said to have collected documents running into thousands of pages from various parties involved, including the statement of the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL), the subsidiary of the Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), which was directly responsible for operating the pesticide plant in Bhopal.
Kochar did not even show the honesty to take up, at least so far, the first part of the terms of reference, that is, if the rules and regulations were complied with while setting up the Union Carbide plant and if adequate measures were taken by Union Carbide to prevent mishaps and also for the disposal of the hazardous waste. While the US courts have dealt at length with how the Union Carbide Corporation had chosen to opt for substandard safety measure for its Bhopal plant in contrast with the first class technology used at its Virginia plant, not much has been revealed about the compliance of rules and regulations in setting up the Bhopal plant. Kochar, it seems, was wary of antagonising some powerful politicians and bureaucrats who had gone out of their way to help the Union Carbide executives.
A senior bureaucrat (now retired) had, for instance, ordered removal of all factories and commercial activities including such as vehicle repair workshop, saw machines, and dairies from the Chhola area of Bhopal as it was strictly a residential area. The same bureaucrat in his dual capacity as the Director of Town and Country Planning and the Administrator of Bhopal Municipal Corporation had granted special permission, in July 1973, to Union Carbide to set up in the same area the pesticide plant which was the source of the havoc in 1984. The bureaucrat, once virtually the hatchet man of Arjun Singh, is now considered close to the BJP and RSS leaders.
The Commission has only been wasting its time in the Warren Anderson saga about which hardly any new fact is likely to emerge as too much has already come out in newspapers, in courts and otherwise. Some of the key factors involved, like Rajiv Gandhi and Arjun Singh, are no more. Others, like then Bhopal Collector Moti Singh and Police Superintendent Swaraj Puri, have either deposed before courts or given out their versions in various interviews. Moti Singh has even written a book detailing his role in the so-called arrest and release of Anderson. Kochar is biding his time by listening to the depositions of Swaraj Puri, Moti Singh and smaller fries who were on duty at the time. He even went to the absurdity of issuing a notice to Warren Anderson asking him to travel from his quiescence in the US to Bhopal to depose before the Kochar Commission working from a small house in a little known locality. At one stage, Kochar even bullied the Bhopal CJM to get unauthorisedly the original file of the proceedings in an on-going Warren Anderson-related case.
One does not expect that the Kochar Commission will be able to unravel any new facts about the arrival, arrest, release and ceremonial departure of Warren Anderson. All it can do is to give a new lease of life to the controversy later this year when the Assembly elections are due and Shivraj Singh Chauhan will be seeking the third term in office.
Bhopal ‘gas widows’ live here
Posted on: October 25, 2012
These photographs show the conditions at the Bhopal ‘Gas Widows’ Colony’ over two year after chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan declared to transform the face of the colony so that its inmates could live a decent life. The colony to rehabilitate the widows of gas leak victims was developed at Karond village, completely out of the city, by the Madhya 
Pradesh Housing Board in the early nineties out of the funds provided by the Centre. Some of the inmates had lost all male members of the family and were unable to undertake any job because of the illness or old age.
Chauhan, it seems, became aware of the colony only after the June 7, 2010 verdict of the Bhopal CJM (sentencing and then immediately bailing out the Indian officials of Union Carbide) and had for some time made pretty loud noises showing his concern about the plight of the victims, particularly the
widows. He announced his determination to ameliorate the living conditions of these widows.
In the Assembly on June 26, he even listed some of the things for these hapless women and their children: their difficulty in procuring ration cards would be removed, their small dwellings (now in a dilapidated condition for want of care) would be exempted from “property tax” (yes, “property tax”)
and also from water tax (which may wrongly suggest that they get regular drinking water supply in the colony), their houses would be renovated and they would be provided all the civic amenities. He also announced a monthly pension of Rs 500 to the “gas widows”.
The houses still are dilapidated, there is no sewerage system, and drinking water supply is irregular as is electricity supply (though the residents continue to get exorbitant electricity bills) and the medical facilities there are
non-existent. The monthly pension of Rs 500 promised by the chief minister is out of the funds sanctioned by the Centre.
Bhopal still retains its splendour
Posted on: August 5, 2012
Bhopal, made known or notorious the world over by the 1984 MiC gas leak disaster in the Union Carbide Corporation pesticide plant, has of late developed into a haphazard conglomerate but it still continues to be a beautiful city with a leisurely pace of life compared to the hurly-burly of modern life in other cities like Bombay, New Delhi and Calcutta. Those visiting Bhopal fall in love with it at first sight. I can claim to be one of them.
The Nawabs, who ruled over Bhopal, had kept the city trimmed, with a well-laid out drinking water and sewer system. Surrounded by forests and lakes, it presented a panoramic sight to the visitors. It was also called the city of lakes.
The biggest of the lakes, known as the Upper Lake, was once so large that one, looking across, could not see the other shore of the lake. It was also
the source, and still is to an extent, of drinking water supply to the denizens of the city. It, though, has considerably shrunk since, almost in direct proportion to the expansion of the city.
Now the capital of Madhya Pradesh, Bhopal is said to have grown out of the 11th century city of Bhojpal, founded by Raja Bhoj, but the present city was established by an Afghan soldier, Dost Mohammed (1707-1740). His descendants developed Bhopal into a beautiful city. The old city with its marketplaces and fine old mosques and palaces still bears the aristocratic imprint of its former rulers, among them the succession of powerful Begums who ruled Bhopal from 1819 to 1926.The new city, though not as well planned, is still greener and cleaner than most cities in India. Bhopal has been a city in which one finds traces of cultures as different as those of Buddhists, Hindus, Mughals and Afghans, providing Bhopal a distinct identity.
Nawab Sikandar Saulat Iftikhar-UI-Mulk Bahadur Hamidullah Khan, or Nawab Hamidullah Khan in short, was the first male ruler of Bhopal State (it was a small kingdom before India got independence from the British rule in 1947). He had a Hindu Prime Minister and was considered an able administrator and politician. Though heading a rather small State of Bhopal, he was elected Chancellor of the prestigious Chamber of Princes on two occasions.
The Nawab is better remembered for his love for new constructions. He donated land for the construction of the prestigious Cricket Club of India (CCI) at Bombay (now renamed Mumbai). He also donated land for the Jamia Millia Islamia (an important academic institution) in New Delhi. The New Vihar at Sanchi (near Bhopal, one of the most important Buddhist pilgrimage places) was built by him. The inauguration ceremony of the Vihar was attended by many distinguished guests, including the Prime Ministers of India, Japan and Burma.
The imprint of the Nawabs can still be seen on the old, beautiful constructions in the old city, though this part is now getting crowded. The emphasis on the constructions in the newer part of the city, which developed after Bhopal was declared the capital of the newly constituted State of Madhya Pradesh in 1956, had been more on accommodation than on aesthetics.
An important institution, Bharat Bhavan, was added to the city in the early 1980s. It is a premier centre of performing arts and has been hosting artists from across the globe.
The life is so tranquil in Bhopal, compared to the other cities in India, that it is said in journalistic community that one should seek one’s posting in Bhopal when nearing retirement because living in Bhopal takes away the instinct for rushing.
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