Disappointed with PM,says Chouhan

The Madhya Pradesh government on Wednesday said it was unhappy with the Prime Ministers failure to take up the extradition of Warren Anderson in Toronto....

The Madhya Pradesh government on Wednesday said it was unhappy with the Prime Ministers failure to take up the extradition of Warren Anderson in Toronto,and announced constitution of an inquiry commission on the Bhopal gas tragedy with main focus on Andersons release.

Though the BJP government gave the impression that the probe panel was being formed in response to PM Manmohan Singhs failure to raise Andersons extradition when he met US President Barack Obama,it had announced such a probe much before.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said he expected Singh to discuss Andersons extradition and compensation with Obama but his hopes were in vain. He said he was disappointed with Singhs statement that e forts will be made for Andersons extradition without a word on the procedure to be adopted. The Union Government was not serious about the issue,he alleged.

A retired judge of a high court will form the one member panel. The government said the judges name would be announced in a couple of days.

Chouhan said though the probe panel would consider various issues related to the tragedy its focus would mainly be the release of the former chief of the Union Carbide Corporation.

While accepting the recommendations of a six-member legal panel,the state government had announced that it would also find out who was responsible for giving licence to the Union Carbide company and officials connected with safety and other regulations.

The Chief Minister had written to the Prime Minister protesting the reconstituted Group of Ministers recommendation to compensate a few thousand victims. He described as unfair the Union governments decision not to reconsider the claims of residents of 20 wards,who were declared ineligible by claim tribunals. Chouhan announced that his government will make all necessary efforts to give relief to the remaining 20 wards.

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These 20 municipal wards are located in new Bhopal and their claims had long been rejected but political parties have been promising them compensation for a long time.