Delayed Justice Is NO justice at all !

[rajpaldular]

वाह ! हमारे देश की प्रशासनिक व्यवस्था १५००० लोगों की मृत्यु का सौदा अमेरिका से कर बैठी, हमारी न्यायिक प्रणाली भी दोयम श्रेणी की निकली, जाटलैंड.कॉम के मेरे सभी भाइयो और बहनों और सभी देशवासिओं मेरे विचार में इन नेताओं की दृष्टि में मृत्यु का कोई मोल नहीं है, सी. बी. आई. को इन राजनेताओं ने सत्यानाश करके रख दिया है. इन्ही मनमोहन सिंह, सोनिया ने सी.बी.आई. और जजों के माध्यम से शिबू शोरेन को बरी कराया था. फांसी यदि देनी है तो इन राजनेताओं को देनी चाहिए. कैसे बेशर्म प्रधान मंत्री हैं जो इस निर्णय के बारे में एक शब्द भी नहीं बोले. समिति बनाकर क्या करोगे? कौन सा बाण चलेगा? अब भी नहीं चेते तो दूसरी दुर्घटना परमाणु की होगी, इन विदेशियों पर कानून क्यों नहीं लागू होते? क्या इनसे कमीशन खाया होता है? कांग्रेस बेईमान पार्टी सिद्ध होती जा रही है. अब भी इन राजनेताओं को शर्म नहीं है. जवानों को मरवाना, देशवासिओं को मरवाना, घोषणा करना कि ५-५ लाख रुपये मरने वालों को जैसे इनके अपने घर से जा रहा हो.
जागो जाटो, विकास के नाम पर अमेरिकी शह करके आपको विष पिलाया जा रहा है. ये राजनेता देश का क्या भला करेंगे, एक carbide ने भोपाल गैस त्रासदी कराई दूसरा परमाणु वाला मनमोहन सिंह करवाएंगे, शर्म नहीं आ रही है शीर्ष स्तर पर बैठे राजनेताओं को. क्या दिया है अमेरिका ने? सदैव छल कपट किया है भारत के साथ. भारत के राजनेता चाहे वह किसी भी पार्टी के हों विदेशियों के सामने क्यों इनके तलवे चाटता है? अब आज की तिथि में एंडरसन के स्थान पर इन नेताओं को फांसी पर लटकाया जाये. न्यायपालिका से पूछना है कि क्या १५००० मौतों की कोई कीमत नहीं है. आज परमाणु समझौता हो रहा है इसको बंद करो, हमारी व्यवस्था, हमारा कानून और ये राजनेता इन सबको ठीक किया जाये. सी. बी.आई. को इन राजनेताओं से जाल से मुक्त किया जाये. न्यायपालिका बताये जब लालू, मुलायम, मायावती, शिबू शोरेन इत्यादि की जांच जब सही दिशा में चल रही होती है तो अचानक धीमी क्यों हो जाती है? क्यों नहीं न्यायपालिका उस समय एक्शन लेती सी.बी.आई. पर और कौन न्यायपालिका को प्रभावित करता है? सोनिया या मनमोहन? या कोई और??????????????????

 

[arvindc]

Some useful information on the subject - It was a disaster waiting to happen

That night, this day

Garima PantSun, Jun 20 02:11 AM
Where were laws flouted in Bhopal? Link:http://in.news.yahoo.com/241/20100620/1257/tnl-that-night-this-day.html
It was a disaster waiting to happen. According to a 2000 Amnesty International report, between the beginning of 1983 and the time of the disaster, a series of cost-cutting measures were implemented. Damaged or malfunctioning equipment was patched up rather than repaired, or replaced by sub-standard material.
Documented evidence suggests that by 1983, the methyl isocyanate (MIC) unit only had six operators compared to 13 in 1980, while the number of maintenance personnel was reduced to just two. Further, Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) had by this time decided to dismantle the plant and ship it to Indonesia or Brazil, with a feasibility report completed just three days before the disaster.
The company decided to store the "ultra-hazardous" MIC in Bhopal in bulk, without equipping the plant with corresponding safety measures.
Technology used was not proven and entailed operational risks.
Standards of safety in design or operations in Bhopal were different from those UCC had in place in the USA. What was also missing was a comprehensive emergency plan or system in Bhopal to warn local communities about leaks.
Operational and waste disposal practices at the factory harmed the environment even before the gas leak. Since the plant opened in 1970, it has been a source of environmental pollution. Even today, the contaminated site continues to pollute the groundwater, the sole source of water for those around the plant, with toxins.
On the fateful night, it was a series of wrongdoings that caused the world's worst industrial disaster:
* The refrigeration unit installed to cool MIC and prevent chemical reactions had been shut for three months.
* The vent gas scrubber had been shut off for maintenance.
* The flare tower had been shut off.
* There were no effective alarm systems in place.
* The water sprayers were incapable of reaching the flare towers.
* The temperature and pressure gauges were malfunctioning.
* Tank number 610 for storing MIC was filled above recommended capacity.
* The standby tank for use in case of excess was already having MIC.
With over 22,000 people dead (as per 2004 ICMR projections) and several thousands injured, a host of new laws and regulations were formed, but their implementation and monitoring has been ignored, which was the case with Bhopal as well. "Union Carbide Corporation did not inform the government of the potential hazards and the Indian government failed in its duty of monitoring and regulating," says Satinath Sarangi, a member of a voluntary medical organisation, Sambhavna, in Bhopal. The state government was armed with several laws to deal with environmental protection, use of hazardous substances in manufacturing and safety: Factories Act, 1948; Insecticides Act 1968; Water Pollution Act, 1974 and Air Pollution Act, 1982. Despite this, it failed to take necessary measures for monitoring and evaluation of safety aspects.
With rampant and unregulated import of hazardous material in India, another Bhopal could be in the making. And as far as the original tragedy goes, few lessons have been learnt from it.

 

[arvindc]

Life is so cheap ...

What is the liability?

fe BureausSun, Jun 20 02:11 AM link http://in.news.yahoo.com/241/20100620/1257/tnl-what-is-the-liability.html

The Public Liability Act, 1991 was made effective from April 1, 1991. Its object is to provide, through insurance, immediate relief to persons affected due to "accident" while "handling" "hazardous substance" by the owners on "no fault liability basis". The definition of "owner" is so comprehensive as to cover any person who owns or has control over any hazardous substance at the time of accident. This includes any firm or its partners. Association or its members, company or its directors and all other persons associated and responsible to that company in the conduct of their business.

* "Accident" means an accident involving a fortuitous, sudden or unintentional occurrence while handling any hazardous substance resulting in continuous, intermittent or repeated exposure to death of, or injury to any person or damage to any property but does not include an accident by reason only of war or radioactivity.

* "Handling"in relation to any hazardous substance means the manufacture, processing, treatment, package, storage, transportation by vehicle, use, collection, destruction, conversion, offering for sale, transfer or the like of such hazardous substance.

* "Hazardous substance" means any substance or preparation that is defined as hazardous substance under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, and exceeding such quantity, as specified by Central govt notification.
* "Hazardous substance" means any substance or preparation which, by reason of its chemical properties or handling, is liable to cause harm to human beings, other living creatures, plants, micro-organism, property or the environment (Environment Protection Act, 1986).
Compensation:

* Reimbursement of medical expenses incurred up to a maximum of Rs 12,500 in each case.

* For a fatal accident the relief will be Rs 25,000 per person in addition to reimbursement of medical expenses, if any incurred on the victim up to a maximum of Rs 12,500.

* For permanent total or permanent partial disability or other injury or sickness, the relief will be:
Reimbursement of medical expenses incurred, if any, up to a maximum of Rs 12,500 in each case and, Cash relief on the basis of percentage of disablement as certified by an authorised physician. The relief for total permanent disability will be Rs 25,000.

* For loss of wages due to temporary partial disability which reduce the earning capacity of the victim, there will be a fixed monthly relief not exceeding Rs 1,000 per month up to a maximum of 3 months provided the victim has been hospitalised for a period exceeding 3 days and above 16 years of age.

* In respect of damage to private property, up to Rs 6,000 per claim.

 

[arvindc]

Just another anniversary -killed more people than all other such accidents in 20th ce

Why did we forget Bhopal?

Suman TarafdarSun, Jun 20 02:11 AM Link: http://in.news.yahoo.com/241/20100620/1257/tnl-why-did-we-forget-bhopal.html
Is it enough to say that there was no 24x7 media there and absolve ourselves of the near total amnesia that most of India had on the Bhopal gas disaster? The world's largest industrial accident, which at conservative estimates killed more people than all other such accidents in the 20th century, became just another anniversary. Outside Bhopal, people forgot. Successive governments—the sole arbiter in the case when they governed—and the judiciary have much to explain. The corporation might have preferred to forget. The media evolved, and moved on.
But just what has been forgotten? The 1979 Three Mile Island is purported to be US' most major industrial accident, one that caused a global rethink on the nuclear power. After the incident, there was a perceptible decline in the number of nuclear reactors, and the hesitation about nuclear power that built in, exists till date. The immediate death toll in that incident? None (Sceptics point to lingering impacts though).
In 1986, the only level 7 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale, the Chernobyl disaster in the then USSR, resulted in "less than 50 direct deaths", though 4,000 related deaths are estimated to have occurred after the incident. The zone of exclusion that was enforced in the nearby town of Pripyat remains to this day.
Compare that to the acknowledged 5,74,000-odd victims who were affected in Bhopal. Besides an increasing death toll, many lost their ability to work, losing livelihoods. Even activists working on the case have acknowledged that they have not been able to build a campaign around Bhopal. "We have to take this forward," says ND Jaiprakash of the Bhopal Gas Peedith Sangharsh Sahayog Samiti, who has been working actively on the case since the 1989 judgment and now plans a wider campaign with an hour-long film called The Betrayal of Bhopal by UK's Granada Television.
D Raghunandan of Delhi Science Forum is glad for the resurgence of interest and points out that many are 'discovering' what has already been known. He points out, however, that "what has got pushed back are the day to day concerns of the victims," of whom he says no one has bothered all these years.
Ironic as it may be, for those pushing for justice on Bhopal, the oil spill from a BP oilwell in the Gulf of Mexico could hardly have been more opportune to revive the issue. $20 billion is what US president Barack Obama has already got the corporation to commit where 11 people were killed. Bhopal is recognised as the world's largest industrial disaster. Neither coverage, nor compensation seem adequate. With such collective amnesia and injustice, Bhopal can also lay claim to being the world's largest humanitarian disaster.

 

[arvindc]

why we must remember...

Kiran YadavSun, Jun 20 02:11 AM Link: http://in.news.yahoo.com/241/20100620/1257/tnl-why-we-must-remember.html

How are safety laws implemented?
Despite the Bhopal gas tragedy, India seems to have learnt few lessons. Since 1984, major incidences of chemical disasters in India include a fire in an oil well in Andhra Pradesh (2003); a vapour cloud explosion in the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited Refinery, Vishakhapatnam (1997); and an explosion in the IPCL Gas Cracker Complex, Nagothane, Maharashtra (1990). Over 20 major chemical accidents have been reported in Major Accident Hazard (MAH) units during 2002-06. Ironically, close to the first anniversary of the Bhopal tragedy, on December 4, 1985, a leakage of oleum gas from the Shriram Foods and Fertilisers Plant in Delhi created widespread panic.

However, there have been a slew of legislations since. To begin with, the Factories Act, 1948, was amended in 1987. The Environmental Protection Rules of 1986 (amended in 2004), Hazardous Waste Management Rules were made in 1989. The Biowaste Management Rules in 1989. The Public Liability Insurance Act, 1991 (amended in 1992). Chemical Accident Planning Preparedness and Response Rules in 1996. The National Environment Tribunal Act in 1995. The National Environmental Appellate Authority Act in 1997. Motor Vehicle Act in 1998. The National Disaster Management Authority also came up with a comprehensive set of guidelines for industrial chemical disasters in 2007.

"We have come a long way. There has been a lot of improvements in regulation to strengthen the industrial safety laws for chemical industries and they have been successful. There have been chemical accidents since Bhopal, but the mortality rate in each one of them has been very low. But yes, there is a lot of scope for further improvement," says Lt Gen Dr JR Bhardwaj, member, National Disaster Management Authority. Presently, there are 1,700 MAH industries in India. "All 1,700 MAH units now have on-site plans. But additionally there are large number of medium and small scale industries that are located in the thick of the population, making the latter vulnerable in the event of a chemical disaster. Next step will be to take measures to make these safe," says Bhardwaj.

Presently, there are several regulators to check on the industries—right from the district collector , the chief inspectorate of factories to labour commissioners. NDMA is trying to create a mechanism for a single agency for inspection of industries. "We are aiming at zero tolerance so that all industries are completely safe," says Bhardwaj. In mock drills conducted by the Authority in 33 big chemical industries to assess their on-site safety plan, many industries were found to be lacking, especially in the private industries. The off-site plans (the plan to be followed in case of a chemical disaster to mitigate its effects) was found to be even more inadequate .

However, environmental lawyer MC Mehta feels that India has learnt no lessons from the Bhopal tragedy. "What's the point of making laws if they are not enforced?" he asks. He cites the landmark judgment in the oleum gas leak case which held that "such hazardous or inherently dangerous activity for private profit can be tolerated only on condition that the enterprise engaged in such hazardous or inherently dangerous activity indemnifies all those who suffer on account of the carrying on of such hazardous or inherently dangerous activity regardless of whether it is carried on carefully or not." The court also observed that "the measure of compensation be co-related to the magnitude and capacity of the enterprise because such compensation must have a deterrent effect. The larger and more prosperous the enterprise, the greater the amount of compensation payable by it for the harm caused on account of an accident in the carrying on of the hazardous or inherently dangerous activity by the enterprise."

"Since 1984 there have been many industrial accidents in India. They have cost so many lives. Sadly, life comes really cheap in India. There is too much political interference in implementation of environmental laws. It takes very long for justice to be delivered and the court directives are carried out so slowly that their impact becomes almost negligible. Moreover, unlike in India, the Law of Torts in US is very strong. In India, the industries keep on prolonging litigation and it is difficult for an average man to afford fighting a court case and seek compensation," says Mehta.

Kushal PS Yadav, food and toxins expert, Centre for Science and Environment, also feels that "though India has some of the best legislations in the world, enforcement is a problem. Besides, the safety gear provided to the workers is not suitable for the hot and humid conditions of India. It is very cumbersome and stuffy for the workers and they avoid using them."

Add to it the radioactive material leak in Delhi - What actions did our beloved government took for the management of hazardous waste? Does anyone know? Does anyone bother? ... Not until the day someone close to you get directly effected.