Freedom Fighters Destroy Wireless Station

GURDASPOUR: The Majitha wireless station near Batala in Gurdaspur District has been completely destroyed in an attack by the Freedom Fighters. There were only five C.R.P.F Jawans present, ‘Three of them were shot dead. An early attack was repulsed. Freedom fighters came in a car and escaped unhurt,

NEW DELUL, India: Union Carbide Corp. and its Indian subsidiary deposited $465 million with the Supreme Court ahead of scheduled Friday, fulfilling a settlement of all claims and damages arising from the December 1984 Bhopal gas leak disaster.

Two checks were turned over to a five member Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice RS. Pathak just before it began a The government sought $3 billion in compensation from Union Carbide, contending in a September 1986 civil liability suit that the firms negligence caused the leak.

Union Carbide blamed the disaster on sabotage by a disgruntled employee and in a countersuit, claimed the central and state governments bore some liability for the large number of causalities because they had permitted thousands of people to live in illegal slums around the pesticide plant.

The government said it accepted the $470 million settlement because it was higher than Union Carbide’s previous offer. It also asserted litigation would have dragged on for as long as 20 years, increasing the plight of the mostly destitute survivors.

The government however, has been heavily criticized by victims relief organizations newspaper editorials and opposition leaders for Accepting what they view as an insufficient sum,

Gandhi as general elections approach has charged the accord ‘was reached through the payment of bribes to unnamed politicians. Union Carbide and the government have denied the allegations.

The Supreme Court panel ordered an official of the Reserve Bank of India to take immediate action to deposit the checks from Union Carbide and its subsidiary in an account in the name of the court registrar.

The daily interest on the $465 million would be about $133,333. Hearing on a petition to boost the settlement to $600 million.

F.S. Nariman, the lead counsel for Union Carbide gave Pathak a check from the U.S. based multinational for $420 million and a rupee draft for the equivalent of $45 million from Union Carbide of India Ltd.

He submitted the checks 28 days before the payment deadline set by the panel in a $470 million dollar settlement of claims and damages arising from history’s worst industrial disaster that it mediated on Feb. 14 between union carbide and the government.

A Union Carbide official later denied the payment was made early to influence the outcome of the hearing on the petition to raise the settlement.

He told United Press International the check from the parent company’s headquarters in Danbury, Conn., reached New Delhi Tuesday, a day before the petition was filed.

 

The official, who requested anonymity, said it was ‘a mere coincidence’ the money was turned over the same day the petition came up before the Supreme Court panel.

The remaining $5 million of the $470 million settlement was offset by a similar amount Union Carbide was ordered to pay by a U.S. judge in 1985 for relief programs for victims of the December 3, 1984, leak of lethal gas from the firm’s now defunct pesticide factory in Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh state, 375 miles south of New Delhi.

The disaster caused the deaths of more than 3,400 people.

Under the accord, all civil and criminal liability actions brought by the government against the multinational were dismissed. Also quashed was a countersuit filed by Union Carbide against the administration. Of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Later the Supreme Court panel opened a hearing on a petition filed by a previously unknown Jawyers group, the Association for Socio Legal Literacy, requesting the settlement be raised to $600 million.

Article extracted from this publication >>  March 3, 1989