Oversight committee to monitor Bhopal clean- up

Government forms panel to clean up Bhopal
NEW DELHI: The Centre on Wednesday constituted an oversight committee to co-ordinate and monitor activities related to waste disposal, decontamination and remediation at the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal. Headed by Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh and Madhya Pradesh minister for relief and rehabilitation Babulal Gaur, the panel will ensure that all requisite technical, financial and other support is available to the state government and its authorities.

The primary responsibility for the removal of the toxic waste from the now defunct Union Carbide plant, soil and ground water remediation, and detoxification and dismantling of the defunct plant will be that of the state government. The 16-member oversight committee will ensure requisite technical, financial, logistical and other support is available to the state government and its authorities at all times while remedial action is taken.

The state environment minister; secretaries of the Union ministries of environment, chemicals and petrochemicals, and science and technology; secretary, department of Bhopal gas tragedy relief and rehabilitation; and principle secretary for finance in the Madhya Pradesh government are members of the committee. Other officials on the committee are the commissioner of Bhopal, additional secretary and finance advisor in the Union environment ministry and the joint secretary in charge of hazardous substance management.

Directors of National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, National Geophysical Research Institute and Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, and the chairmen of the Central Pollution Control Board and the Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board are the technical experts on the committee.

The Centre will spend around Rs 310 crore for environmental remediation in and around the disaster site where the hazardous material continues to pollute ground water and soil on a massive scale more than 25 years after the industrial mishap.
Government forms panel to clean up Bhopal
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Is the Oversight committee an adjunct to an Anomaly committee analogous to deception per se?
An oversight committee can have an impact on the quality and fairness of fact-finding even before the committee gains access to the relevant information. When research is done in the knowledge that an outside entity will be reviewing the research methods and findings, there is an increased sense of accountability. Government or corporate research entities must ensure the standard of their work is acceptable, especially because in the long run it will be more costly and time-consuming if they are forced to go back and correct mistakes when an oversight committee detects errors or deceptions. However, oversight committees must seek to avoid what is called "analysis paralysis," the tendency to want to analyze something forever, in an effort to eliminate all uncertainty before making a decision. Since uncertainty is unavoidable in many scientific inquiries, it is important that oversight committees recognize when the best available research strategies are used, and accept the results from that research as the best obtainable at the time. This allows decisions to be made and actions taken in a timely manner. Will the clean up of Bhopal be based on scientific analysis or whims and fancies of Bureaucrats and Politicians who can make a sizable buck from the clean up funds amounting to about Rs 400 crores!

CWG: If the games were held in Dantewada the Maoists would have lost their raison d'etre

Senior Congress leader and former sports minister Mani Shankar Aiyar has slammed the current United Progressive Alliance government under Dr Manmohan Singh for the huge amount of 'wasteful expenditure' being incurred on the Commonwealth games, saying that if a part of this money had been spent on the Bhopal Gas victims it would have brought the affected 'some relief'.

"Holding the 10-day, Rs 20,000-crore jamboree reflects a misplaced sense of pride and distortion of national priorities. If not on development of a chronically poor nation, the money could have been well spent on bringing basic sports to every mohalla and panchayat,” former Union Minister for Panchayati Raj and Sports Mani Shankar Aiyar says in an article.

The outspoken Aiyar, who was recently nominated to the Rajya Sabha, has in a signed article taken on the government over the Commonwealth Games and questioned the UPA's policies on this issue.

Aiyar said the original promise was to hold the games within Rs 150 crore and this money was to be recovered from endorsements and ticket sales. Expressing shock, he said the expenditure has already touched Rs 20,000 crore and his fears were that the expenditure would eventually exceed Rs 60, 000 crore. Aiyar said that the Bhopal gas victims could have benefited if some part of this money could have been diverted for their welfare and rehabilitation.

Aiyar, who was also the panchayati raj minister said that when Rs 600 crores was given for the Gram Nyayalas (rural courts) after a lot of haggling, both the planning commission and the finance ministry reminding him that India was a 'poor country.' He said that the same planning commission and finance ministry were not giving out money for the games and no questions were being asked in the process. Aiyar said that originally it was decided to hold the games in Bawana in north-east Delhi dominated by villages to ensure the growth and development of that region. So how were the games shifted to the posh areas of Delhi, which is already developed.

Giving the example of East Manchester where the Commonwealth Games were held in London, he said the most backward area was chosen to benefit the poor and the unemployed. As a consequence of this, Walmart set up its biggest store employing 18000 boys and girls while Microsoft's European headquarters was located there because of the Commonwealth Games.

Aiyar said that if the games had been held in Dantewada and if 20,000 crores had been invested there, the Maoists would have lost their raison d'etre.

Hitting out at both the Delhi state and central governments, Aiyar said that the effort appeared to be to impress foreigners at the cost of the poor and the needy, with beggars having been removed from Delhi's streets because they left a bad impression on foreigners, but this, he says will not drive away poverty.

Aiyar has been a constant and consistent critic of the kind of wasteful expenditure that the Indian government is spending on a one time gaming extravaganza which will neither promote sports in the country, nor create any sporting infrastructure nor benefit the country in any form, except to spend money like water, for a cause which has no meaning.

In India, as Aiyar foresees, the only good that will come out of the Commonwealth Games will be a decision to never again bid for such an event until every Indian child gets a minimum to eat and is assured a basic education and a playground with trained coaches to discover the sportsperson in himself/ herself.
Panchayati Raj Minister Slams UPA Government
Who gains from the Games?

Bhopal gas tragedy was trendy playing field for the Politicians

A quarter century of ball game by Indian Politicians and the Judiciary resulting in victims being slighted and neglected. The speciality Hospital and Rehabilitation Funds grossly misused and under utilised at the expense of the Gas Victims!

June 14, 2010, 11:51 IST
Zeenews Bureau
Anderson, one of the main accused in the horrific tragedy that left thousands dead on the night of December 2-3 1984, had arrived in India on December 7, just four days after the tragedy.

He was booked by the police under the stringent Section 304(B) of the IPC but under mysterious circumstances was granted bail and flown out of Bhopal the same day by the then Madhya Pradesh government.

A Bhopal court, last week, had delivered its judgment in the gas leak case sparking outrage among the victims and across the country as the seven accused former Union Carbide officials were sentenced to only two years imprisonment, besides a fine of Rs 1 lakh each for negligence. All the convicts are now out on bail.
Read the full article
Extradite Anderson: Bhopal victims to Obama
Vox Populi
Death and deformity of 20,000 citizens is avenged by a ridiculous 2 year sentence to the convicts besides Rs one lakh fine- and all let out on bail. 25 years of grappling with politicians and meandering through intricate judicial cobwebs spun by eloquent lawyers (whetting their appetite to be Ministers) has reduced this verdict to a National Shame. The culprits are all linked to Politicians who influence in setting up the Multi- National companies where money laundering is a norm. Indian Justice is really a bogey meant to oblige the rich and powerful. The poor are the expendables. The bureaucracy ensures that Political masters are all that matters irrespective of their misdeeds and criminal complicity!

Bhopal Gas Tragedy: Chorus from Whispers in the Corridor

Aaj Ki Aawaz

Bhopal Gas victims’ records tampered. Now there is news that with Bhopal Gas victims’ medical records tampering was done! Really does stun! Medical records tampered and justice is delayed and denied….what does this shout?

Main accused is set free and has tea with the Nation’s President before flying out!

India is a Banana Republic! India does not stand up for the Indian Public!!

You can aid and abet genocide here and then not only get away but become a Minister! Isn’t all this very sinister?

An ex CJI watered down the charges against the UCC accused! And the next year he showed he was used! Because he was appointed as the Chairman for life of a UCC trust! CJI made justice go bust!

A fortnight before he retired he dismissed a review petition in just one line!Did he break the nib of his pen after order kiya uss ne sign?

The Hospital (BMHRC) the Trust runs is run in a ‘cavalier’ way! Chairman for Life has in everything a ‘say’!

Though this ex CJI says he took up the Chairmanship to do 'social work'! I'm sure you too would be saying 'what a jerk'?

They say Arjun Singh is pained by the allegations being made! Fact is only a ‘minion's’ role he played!

He got the orders from Delhi and he did as was ordered! Though on sheer ludicrousness this order bordered!

By the way in his rule as MP CM what did Diggy do for the victims of this tragedy? Fact is to alleviate pain and suffering he did not even have a strategy!

Congress Bhonpu Janaki Natrajan says 'we should move on'! Remorse in Congress ..... none!

And Congress is rubbing salt by pushing for the Nuke Civil Liability Bill!Hasn't it had it's fill?

BJP cannot point a finger at Congress! Because it too went along with 'Mission Suppress'!

BJP Government's in MP and Center did not try to bring those responsible to the book! To get the victims and their families justice or relief no steps BJP took!

Confucius says.... hamaam mein Congress and BJP are nangaa! Be it the Bhopal tragedy or the 1984 dangaa!!

Flash.... from his Hospital bed Pawar has been 'praising the Lord'! People forgot about his misdeeds as info into the public domain on Bhopal poured!

He's now off to USA and he hopes that by the time he returns! 'Some Bhopal continues or some other controversy in Indian Media burns'!
Bharat Kumar
Courtesy; Whispers in the Corridor: click here