Ministers to send Bhopal report to PM on Monday

A nine-member panel head-ed by Home Minister P Chidambaram will on Monday finalise its report on the Bhopal Gas tragedy, making its recommendations on relief, rehabilitation and remediation issues and legal options in the wake of the recent trial court judgement in the case.

After the first meeting of the reconstituted Group of Ministers that was mandated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to present its report in 10 days, Home Minister P Chidambaram, who heads the GoM, told reporters that the Group was proceeding in the right direction and was determined address all issues, including relief, rehabilitation and remediation by Sunday, reported the Press Trust of India.

“We are looking at them separately and then we will take a comprehensive view,” he said, adding they were now looking into the number of people affected, number of claims that were accepted and claims categorised as death and injury cases.

He said the GoM will meet in two sessions tomorrow and on Sunday.

“On Monday, we should be able to finalise the recommendations. We will give our best and most sympathetic consideration to all these people who have suffered as a result of this tragedy,” Chidambaram said.

The GoM was announced in the wake of a raging controversy over the light punishment given to the accused in the Bhopal case a local court. Questions were also raised over the exit of the then Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson.

At the meeting on Friday, the GoM identified the areas which require in-depth consideration in the wake of the mandate given by the Prime Minister to look into relief, rehabilitation, remediation and all options available to the government after the judgement of the trial court on June 7.

“Tomorrow, we will look at legal and health issues, remediation issues and all other issues that arise out of the judgement of the trial court,” Chidambaram said.

(Additional input from AFP)

Published in The Express Tribune, June 19^th, 2010.