The government is expected to move Supreme Court seeking control of the Bhopal Memorial Hospital which is currently being run by a trust headed by former Chief Justice of India A M Ahmadi.
This option was deliberated on at the third session of the Group of Ministers headed by Home Minister P Chidambaram which is looking into issues in the aftermath of the trial court verdict in the Bhopal gas leak case. "We have heard everyone concerned and we will form some conclusions about how the Bhopal Memorial Hospital should be run in the future," Chidambaram told reporters New Delhi after the meeting of the GoM. He said the ministers also deliberated on how the epidemiological works should be done in the future and under whose aegis and auspices this work should continue.
Sources said that the GoM had extensive discussion on the Centre assuming control of the Bhopal Memorial Trust Hospital. They said the government may also move the Supreme Court seeking its control. The hospital was set up after a Supreme Court bench in 1991 asked the Union Carbide Company to pay up for its liability in the industrial disaster and help in setting up a world-class
At another sitting on Sunday, the GoM is expected to deliberate on the remedial measures that need to be carried out at the site of the tragedy as also making Union Carbide company party to the process. The decision to re-constitute the GoM was announced in the wake of a furore over the quantum of punishment given to those accused in the Bhopal gas leak case, with the political class in unison terming it as "too little, too late". The prime minister has directed the GoM to expedite its work and asked it on June 14 to submit report within 10 days.
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