Protests in Bhopal, 25 Years After the Disaster

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AIChE
Dow Chemical banner, Bhopal, India.
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Technically, the actual 25th anniversary took place last December (as observed in December's Chemical Engineering Progress by CCPS's Roxy Schneider in "Spotlight on Safety" on p. 20). These demonstrators were reacting to a Bhopal court's decision that sentenced eight people to jail for two years each for their negligence that contributed to the event that killed thousands. The sentencing (not the sentences) took so long because more than 12 different judges have presided over the cases since the disaster took place. Originally, those convicted were facing culpable homicide charges, which could have led to up to 10 years behind bars for each of the accused. India's Supreme Court later reduced the charges to death by negligence, for which sentences run a maximum of 2 years. According to BBC News:
"The eight convicted on Monday were Keshub Mahindra, the chairman of the Indian arm of the Union Carbide (UCIL); VP Gokhale, managing director; Kishore Kamdar, vice-president; J Mukund, works manager; SP Chowdhury, production manager; KV Shetty, plant superintendent; SI Qureshi, production assistant. All of them are Indians."
Since many of you can count, you'll notice that only seven names are listed. An eighth has died since charges were originally brought against the group. Again, since this has taken so long, some of these men are now in their 70s. In addition to the prison sentences, each was ordered to pay a fine of 100,000 Indian rupees (~$2,125). Union Carbide, the company that ran the pesticides-producing plant in Bhopal, paid $470 million to the Indian government twenty years ago. Dow Chemical purchased Union Carbide in 1999. They consider this matter resolved. The line between corporate and individual responsibility seems blurred in good times and bright-lined in the aftermath of a disaster. Perhaps this international incident will be a preview as to what might happen when everything gets sorted out in the Gulf of Mexico.
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Comments

Submitted by jvasko (not verified) on Tue, 06/08/2010 - 21:48

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Thanks for the link.

Submitted by Ahra Kwon (not verified) on Tue, 06/15/2010 - 13:57

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I've just learned and read in detail about the incident in Bhopal this past month. I was given a book entitled "Incidents that Define Process Safety" and Bhopal was one of the longest chapters I've read so far. The failure of process safety management caused so much disaster and tragedy and yet people today still do not know the justice that these people deserve. I don't know how Anderson lives on today without the guilt that will stay with him for a lifetime. No people should ever have to experience such tragedy again. Engineers of tomorrow have many examples of history to study and ensure that no reoccurences happen. I'm surprised by the number of engineers who do not know about famous incidents such as Bhopal or PiperAlpha and many more. I believe every engineer should know about these incidents no matter what field of engineering they're studying.