BHOPAL, India, June 17, Reuter: The government of India, claiming 3.3 billion dollars from the Unin Carbide Corporation on behalf of all victims of the Bhopal gas disaster, asked an Indian Court to bar the U.S. Company from making deals with individuals about compensation.

Vepa Sarthy, lawyer for the government, asked Bhopal District Judge M.W. Deo on Thursday to restrain Union Carbide from reaching a settlement with individual plaintiffs in two US courts. About 30 people are seeking private settlements in courts in Connecticut and Jefferson County in Texas.

Last December, Deo awarded interim relief of 270 million dollars to the victims. Another court later cut this to 192 million but none of it has so far been paid.

About 2,500 people were killed and 200,000 injured in December 1984 when poison gas leaked out of Union Carbide’s pesticides plant at Bhopal in Central India.

Article extracted from this publication >> June 24, 1988