New Delhi, India — The Indian government will consider any proposal from the Union Carbide Corporation for a new factory at Bhopal, where a leak from its pesticide plant killed at least 2,000 people last month, the top state official said Tuesday.
But Arjun Singh, Chief Minister of the central state of Madhya Pradesh, of which Bhopal is the capital, said the government has not received any proposal from the American multinational chemical company.
The official was reacting to news reports that Union Carbide Chairman Warren Anderson suggested his company set up a new plant or modified version of the existing one in Bhopal to manufacture product: other than pesticides.
“Any such proposal from the Union Carbide will be considered by the government,” Singh told a news conference in Uj jain, a city not far from Bhopal.
The Indian government has said it would not allow the present Unior Carbide plant to reopen.
The plant was closec down after at least 2,00 people were killed and 100,000 others exposed t methyl isocyanine gas which escaped from an underground storage tank Dec. 3 and sent a cloud poison gas over the city.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 25, 1985
