After 25 years, Bhopal tragedy verdict on Jun 7

Times of India - Suchandana Gupta, TNN, May 14, 2010, 03.30am IST

BHOPAL: Twenty five years after the December 3, 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, a local court will issue verdict on June 7 against the Union Carbide and other respondents in the case.

CBI had chargesheeted Union Carbide Corporation, Union Carbide (India) Limited, Union Carbide (Eastern) Hong Kong, UCC chairman Warren Anderson and eight Indian officials for the tragedy on December 1, 1987. Thousands of people were killed in the gas poisoning.

Groups in Atlanta Call Dow Out at Live Earth

When the runners reached the finish line at the sparsely attended Atlanta’s Live Earth “Run for Water” sponsored by Dow Chemical on April 18th, a small row of people holding signs, banners, petitions, some appropriately marked faux-contaminated water that some residents of Bhopal, India have been left to consume because of Dow and flyers about Dow’s environmental violations around the world greeted them along with the race organizers and other vendors at Pemberton Place in downtown Atlanta.

Bhopalis Return Home, but still need your support

Please read this whole statement to supporters here, and visit http://www.bhopal.net/dharna2010/ to find out how you can help.

Dear Bhopal campaigners and supporters,

We have decided to suspend the dharna (sit in protest) at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi and are back in Bhopal. The dharna we started on April 15 succeeded in getting things moving with regard to the reconstitution of the Group of Ministers on Bhopal (GoMB) which is the final decision making authority with regard to issues on the Bhopal disaster. The negligent attitude of the Indian government towards the continuing disasters in Bhopal is evident from the fact that the GoMB that had approved the draft of the Empowered Commission on Bhopal (ECoB) in 2008 has not been reconstituted after the elections of 2009.  We hope that the concerned officials in the Ministry of Chemical and Fertilizers (the nodal Ministry on the Bhopal disaster) will follow up on the letter that they have sent out in response to our recent protests in Delhi and that the GoMB would be reconstituted in six to eight weeks time.

The other big reason for suspending the dharna at Jantar Mantar is that unlike earlier years, we and other protestors were not allowed to put up tents to protect ourselves from the scorching sun. As a result quite a few children and adults suffered heat strokes. Unlike other years we and other protestors had to vacate the protest site at 6 in the evening. We were not able to find free/affordable accommodation for more than 80 people, which restricted the number of people participating in protest and direct action.