SC opens pursestrings to Rs 1,500-cr kitty for Bhopal’s gas victims

The account managed by the Welfare Commissioner, appointed under the Bhopal Gas Disaster (Processing of Claims) Act 1985, was left with that much money after he had settled 5.5 lakh claims and, coincidentally, disbursed about the same amount, Rs 1,500 crore.

Since the Supreme Court today ordered the Welfare Commissioner to make the fresh disbursement on ‘‘a pro rata basis,’’ each of the victims is likely to receive an amount roughly equal to what he or she had already received as compensation.

Thus, the 7,000 victims who received around Rs one lakh as compensation for death claims are set to get another Rs one lakh because of today’s order on a joint petition filed in March 2003 by 36 victims from each of the gas affected wards of Bhopal.

The petition was mobilised after some activists accessed the records of the Welfare Commissioner showing that as of March 31, 2002, there was still a balance of Rs 1,360 crore in an account that was meant to be used only for paying compensation to Bhopal gas victims. The balance has been growing because the RBI invested the remainder in interest-earning securities.

The counsel for victims, S Muralidhar, besides urging the court to give the victims their due without any further delay, sought a confirmation from the RBI on the quantum of the balance. In the event, the RBI confirmed that the realisable value of securities was Rs 578.9 crore and that the difference in the exchange value of dollar between 1989 and 2004 worked out to Rs 926.5 crore. The total of these two figures comes to Rs 1,505 crore.

A bench comprising Justice Shivraj Patil and Justice B N Srikrishna directed the disbursement of this amount after the Centre agreed ‘‘in principle’’ that it was entirely the property of the victims.The bench asked the Welfare Commissioner to work out the modalities of paying the fresh compensation in proportion to what had already been paid.