Dow must pay for Union Carbide plant site cleanup: Activists

The group that represents Bhopal gas victims has said that the central government must recover from Dow Chemicals the Rs300 crore it has allocated for cleaning up the toxic materials at now defunct Union Carbide plant site. Dow Chemicals, which purchased Union Carbide Corporation over a decade ago, is locked in a legal battle in the Madhya Pradesh high court over its liabilities.

“The allocated money belongs to the people of this country and they shouldn’t be burdened with this expenditure. It’s the duty of Dow Chemicals, the owner of UCC, to pay for the removal of waste,” said Abdul Jabbar, convener of Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangathan. Jabbar told DNA that law minister M Veerappa Moily should make “sincere efforts” to get the lawsuit pending in the MP high court since 2004, disposed of by a ‘fast track’ dispensation.

“Victims have suffered and are suffering every day,” Jabbar said, referring to medical reports that confirmed the presence of toxic wastes in the air, water and land of Bhopal. Heavy rains have caused toxic chemicals to leach into underground water aquifers, a source of drinking water for people living near the factory, he said. Noted lawyer and additional solicitor general Vivek Tankha, who represents the government in the high court, has said that the government’s decision to spend the money won’t affect the outcome of the lawsuit.

Tankha told DNA that once it is held that Dow is amenable to Indian jurisdiction, the entire expenses would be recovered from the company. So far, Dow has been challenging the Rs100 crore liability suit for removal of toxic waste.

Its counsel, Abhishek Singhvi, has been stressing that Dow wasn’t in the picture in 1984, so it couldn’t be asked to compensate. Singhvi is the spokesperson of Congress.