Chidambaram to chair reconstituted GoM on Bhopal

Union home minister P Chidambaram will head a reconstituted Group of Ministers (GoM) to look at relief and rehabilitation measures arising out of the Bhopal gas disaster that killed 15,000 people in one night in 1984.

Earlier, Arjun Singh was heading the panel, as he was the state chief minister when it occurred. He is no longer part of the government.

Other members of the GoM would be health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, law minister M Veerappa Moily, urban development minister S Jaipal Reddy; industries minister Kamal Nath, tourism minister Kumari Selja, chemicals and fertilisers minister M K Alagiri; minister of state in the Prime Minister’s Office, Prithviraj Chavan and environment minister Jairam Ramesh, sources said. Madhya Pradesh’s minister in-charge of rehabilitation will be a permanent invitee, they said. The GoM will examine all issues relating to the tragedy, including remedial measures, and recommend on further relief and rehabilitation for the victims and their kin.

The reconstitution of the GoM has taken place two days after the Bhopal court verdict which drew widespread criticism as “too little, too late”.

Nearly 26 years after the disaster, former Union Carbide India Chairman Keshub Mahindra and six others were sentenced to two years imprisonment, on the charge of negligence.