India is to push the US to extradite the US former boss of the company blamed for the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster, as part of a new government response to the accident, a minister said yesterday.
Under fire for the slow pace of justice and inadequate clean-up of the site of the disaster, the world’s worst industrial accident, the government created a panel of senior ministers to draw up recommendations for fresh action.
The panel, whose advice will now be handed to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has recommended renewing efforts to secure the extradition of the former chief executive of Union Carbide, which owned the plant at the center of the case.
The disaster unfolded on the night of Dec. 2, 1984, when the pesticide plant in Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh state, spewed 40 tonnes of toxic gas into surrounding residential areas.
The gas killed thousands instantly and tens of thousands more from its lingering effects over the following years.
“India will make vigorous efforts to get Warren Anderson repatriated,” Indian Minister for Urban Development Jaipal Reddy told reporters after the panel finalized its work.
Anderson was arrested in India after the accident, but he then fled the country. Repeated requests for his extradition have been turned down by US authorities and few now expect Washington to assent.
The now-retired Anderson, like the local managers of Union Carbide’s subsidiary in India, faces charges of criminal negligence. Seven of the local managers were convicted on June 7, while Anderson was named as an absconder.
India pressing the US for Anderson’s extradition has the potential to strain relations between New Delhi and Washington, however.
Robert Blake, the US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, told reporters earlier this month that he didn’t “expect this verdict to reopen any new inquiries or anything like that.”
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