Bhopal gas tragedy: Supreme Court rejects more money for victims

india

India’s Supreme Court has rejected a plea seeking more compensation for victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster. The court said the issue could not be “raked up three decades after the settlement”. Thousands of people died after a leak from Union Carbide’s plant in the Madhya Pradesh state capital. Dow Chemicals, which bought Union Carbide in 1999, said that a settlement agreed upon in 1989 was fair and final. The Bhopal gas disaster is considered the world’s worst industrial disaster. The Indian government says some 3,500 people died within days of the gas leak and more than 15,000 in the years since. Campaigners put the death toll as high as 25,000 and say the effects of the gas continue to this day. In 2010, an Indian court had convicted seven former managers at the plant, handing down minor fines and brief prison sentences. But many victims and campaigners have felt justice has still not been served against Union Carbide.(BBC)…[+]