New Delhi, June 24
The Union Cabinet today accepted the recommendations of the Group of Ministers (GoM) on Bhopal gas leak tragedy and has decided to begin a concerted effort to win justice and money for the Bhopal victims and to fix accountability for the industrial disaster that killed 20,000 residents of the city in 1984.

It has decided to file a curative petition to challenge the judgment by a Bhopal trail court in the gas leak tragedy.

The curative petition will be filed in the Supreme Court and the government will also press for extradition of Union Carbide former CEO Warren Anderson from the US.

Keeping in mind the public outrage and Opposition onslaught, which saw the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh intervening, the government has also decided to enhance the amount of compensation to be paid to the gas leak tragedy victims.

Announcing the decisions, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said the Union Cabinet, at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, had decided that Rs 10 lakh would be paid to the next of kin of the dead, Rs 5 lakh to those suffering permanent disability and Rs 2 lakh to those suffering from cancer or renal failure, and Rs 1 lakh each to those who suffered temporary disability.

This was in line with the recommendations of a Group of Ministers (GoM) on the Bhopal tragedy headed by Home Minister P. Chidambaram.

Soni said that the attorney general would be examining if a “curative petition” could be filed in the Supreme Court for revising the compensation paid to the Bhopal victims.

The government was also looking at liability of Dow Chemicals, which has acquired Union Carbide, she said.

The GoM was reconstituted late last month, ahead of the June 7 verdict of a Bhopal court sentencing seven Indian executives of Union Carbide to only two years in jail. They were immediately granted bail. The judgment sparked outrage in the country, prompting the Prime Minister to direct the GoM to present its report within 10 days.

After holding four sessions last week, the GoM presented its report on Monday earlier this week.

The GoM had recommended a total aid package of 1265.56 crore for the Bhopal victims, which will be given by the government now.

The government will also begin a Rs 300-crore clean-up of the defunct Carbide plant and the areas surrounding it, where hundreds of toxic waste are health hazards.