Govt to find out if Dow liable

Union Carbide is now owned by Dow Chemical which denies any responsibility. Dow said it bought Union Carbide a decade after it had settled its liabilities with the Indian government in 1989 by paying $470 million for the victims.

“We will pursue the case against Dow Chemical (in court) to find out about (its) liability,” Jaipal Reddy,the federal urban development minister who is on a government panel dealing with the accident,told reporters on Monday.

Congress party,which heads the ruling coalition,faces embarrassment in the case as the party was in power when the accident happened. Opposition parties have said its leaders allowed Anderson to “flee” Bhopal on a government plane.

Activists say 25,000 people died in the immediate aftermath of the accident and in ensuing years,and about 100,000 people who were exposed to the gas continue to suffer today from ailments that range from cancer,blindness to birth defects.

The first convictions in the disaster came this month,partly due to the slow-moving justice system. The verdict — 2 years in jail and small fines for Union Carbide’s seven Indian employees — has sparked outrage.

Spurred on by public anger,the government set up a ministerial panel to look into the case again,including the extradition of Anderson,who lives in the United States and has been classified as an absconder in the case by an Indian court.

The panel had also recommended fresh compensation of about $22,000 dollars to the family of each person killed in the accident. It also wants to look into ways to clean up the factory site in Bhopal that many say still contains deadly contaminants.

While the perceived light punishment in the Bhopal case has become a lightning rod for calls to reform the country’s judicial system,it has also raised questions into how Anderson was able to leave India and charges of political conspiracy.

A previous extradition request for Anderson was turned down by the United States.