BHOPAL

From the Guardian (here)

India's supreme court has ordered the government to distribute money held in the bank to more than half a million victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy who have been waiting 20 years for compensation.

Legal wrangles have left destitute most of those who suffered injury in the world's worst industrial accident, but yesterday the court ruled that money held in the Bank of India since 1989, currently worth £174m, must be paid out.

In December 1984, tonnes of a toxic gas leaked from a pesticide plant owned by Union Carbide in the central Indian city of Bhopal, killing 3,800 people almost immediately. Since then, campaigners claim, more than 20,000 people have died from related illnesses and, of the approximately 520,000 people exposed to the poisonous methyl isocyanate gas, some 120,000 remain chronically ill.

See also the Deccan Herald (here):

Without fixing a deadline, a division bench comprising Mr Justice Shivaraj V Patil and Mr Justice B N Srikrishna asked the Welfare Commissioner, appointed under the Bhopal Gas Disaster (Processing of Claims) Act 1985, to distribute the money among the claimants and give a report within three months.

I'll post links to the order once I find it.