Letters: Wake up, see the oil slick

Even though the cap for civil liabilities in the US may be just $75 million (“If we had a BP here”, June 4), BP is looking at spending several billion dollars on cleaning up the spill and may even have to pay up several billion in penalties as US lawmakers are trying to see if the company was negligent — as you have said, this will mean the $75-million cap will be redundant. Contrast this with what Kirtika Suneja and Jyoti Mukul have said in an excellent story (“Spill oil, pay Rs 5 crore to get away in India”, June 5). If the penalty in India is a mere Rs 5 crore, is it any surprise that few Indian companies have any respect for the environment?

 

Very often it is said that westerners are more honest than us Indians, that they care more for the environment than we do. If this is so, it is because these countries have strict laws for violations and also enforce them. You can’t have minimal punishments for damaging the environment and then expect companies to protect it.

Ajay Sinha, Gurgaon