M Reyaz & Afroz Alam Sahil
New Delhi: The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has no record of “any papers prior to the year 1993” in the Bhopal Gas Tragedy in which 558,125 people suffered injuries and more than 3000 died.
BeyondHeadlines had requested the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to provide copies of all correspondence exchanged between the ministry and all other government departments on the disaster until 1995, when the Supreme Court judgement came, under the Right to information Act (RTI).
On December 2-3, 1984, at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal a leak of methyl isocyanate gas and other chemicals from the plant resulted in the exposure of hundreds of thousands of people. Warren Anderson was the chairman of the company.
UCIL was later taken over by the Dow Chemicals.
MEA has, however, sent only copies of letters it wrote to the CBI between 1992 and 1995. The response to RTI filed by BH clearly reads, “the concerned Division of the Ministry does not have any papers prior to the year 1993.”
The response sent, it appears, has been prepared hurriedly, without giving any thought as MEA has furnished a letter dated April 28, 1992, but says that it has no record of “any papers prior to the year 1993.”
Anderson, is a US national, who was first arrested in Bhopal on his arrival, but granted bail within days on condition that he would be available when required.
He never came back; neither could government get him extradited.
