NK's Post

Ordinance to restore Bhopal gas victims' property

Image
NK SINGH Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh Government on Thursday promulgated an ordinance for the restoration of moveable property sold by some people while fleeing Bhopal in panic following the gas leakage. The ordinance covers any transaction made by a person residing within the limits of the municipal corporation of Bhopal and specifies the period of the transaction as December 3 to December 24, 1984,  Any person who sold the moveable property within the specified period for a consideration which he feels was not commensurate with the prevailing market price may apply to the competent authority to be appointed by the state Government for declaring the transaction of sale to be void.  The applicant will furnish in his application the name and address of the purchaser, details of the moveable property sold, consideration received, the date and place of sale and any other particular which may be required.  The competent authority, on receipt of such an application, will conduct...

Anderson was given VVIP send-off on a state plane


NK SINGH



BHOPAL: Four days after the gas leak, an army of Indian and foreign media persons waited for Union Carbide Corporation chairman Warren Anderson outside the company’s guest house for nearly eight hours only to learn later that there any had come and gone.

Anderson had flown to Bhopal from Bombay by an Indian Airlines flight to avoid public attention that a  company jet would have attracted.


Bhopal’s District Magistrate MotiSingh, SP Swaraj Puri and a posse of policemen met them on the tarmac beside an official Ambassador  car waiting for the Carbide bosses. Followed by Singh and Puri in another car, Anderson and his colleagues were taken to the Carbide guest house.

An officer, who was part of the operation, said the team spent anxious moments at the back-gate as the lock refused to open. So, several policemen lifted the entire six-foot-high gate from its hinges to make way for Anderson’s car.

Inside the plush guest-house, an officer of the rank of deputy superintendent of police, who was waiting for the Carbide top brass, told them they were all under arrest.

Soon a magistrate materialised and read them the charges culpable homicide not amounting to murder (a non-bailable offence), killing of livestock and making the atmosphere noxious.


Within six hours of his arrest, Anderson was a free man, released on a bail of Rs. 25,000.

He was taken out of the guest-house the way he was brought in by lifting the back gate from its hinges and provided a state plane to fly to Delhi, from where he boarded his private jet for the US after two days.

His property in India : A gas Mask!

Union Carbide Corporation former Chairman Warren Anderson, while leaving Bhopal, after his now famous release from six hour imprisonment on December 7, 1984, left a small memento behind: a gas mask.

When he came out of the Indian Airlines Boeing that had carried him to Bhopal on the morning of December 7, 2010, he was carrying a gas mask in one hand. Apparently, the man did not want to take any chances with the MIC gas that his plant had spewed.


While leaving Bhopal, he quietly left the mask in the car of guest-house through the back door to avoid the media.


Hindustan Times, 11 June 2010




Comments