The Indian government`s new $280m package to compensate the victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster falls short of expectations, campaigners say.

The government has said the money will also go into cleaning up the polluted factory site and improve medical treatment of the victims.

The move follows public outrage after seven former managers at the plant were given two-year jail sentences.
Some 3,500 people died within days and more than 15,000 in the years since.

The convictions are the first since the disaster at the Union Carbide plant - considered to be the world`s worst industrial accident.

Amid rising public and media pressure the government appointed a group of senior ministers to look again at issues such as compensation for those affected, and what to do about continued pollution at the now abandoned plant.

Campaigners and groups working for the gas victims are meeting in the capital, Delhi, on Friday to protest against what they call the failure of the government to give "enhanced compensation" for the victims.

`Not satisfied`

"We are not satisfied with the compensation, we are not satisfied with the rehabilitation [plan for victims] and we are not satisfied about the approach to corporate liability [in the new compensation package]," Ms Rachna Dhingra told the BBC.

•    Initial deaths (3-6 December): more than 3,000 - official toll
•    Unofficial initial toll: 7,000-8,000
•    Total deaths to date: over 15,000
•    Number affected: Nearly 600,000
•    Compensation: Union Carbide pays $470m in 1989

Source: Indian Supreme Court, Madhya Pradesh government, Indian Council of Medical Research

The government announced the new compensation package on Thursday.

Minister Ambika Soni said the government would also gather new evidence against Warren Anderson [the then chairman of the US-based Union Carbide parent group] and "thereafter press the request for [his] extradition".
Mr Anderson is retired and lives in the US.

The new compensation will help double the payout for the families of the dead to $22,000, and increase payments for those with health defects.

"More than 45,000 victims who were affected most severely by the tragedy will receive additional ex gratia payments," Ms Soni was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

The funds will be also used to upgrade local medical facilities and set up a research centre in Bhopal.

They will be used to clean up the polluted factory site which will be dismantled by 2012, Ms Soni said.

Twenty years ago Union Carbide paid $470m (£282m) in compensation to the Indian government.

Dow Chemicals, which bought the company in 1999, says this settlement resolved all existing and future claims against the company.

But campaigners like Satinath Sarangi, who heads a group of survivors, said that the government must take "strong action" against Dow Chemicals.

"The government has failed to understand the scale of damage," Mr Sarangi said ahead of Thursday`s announcement.

"There is no mention of the second and third generation victims and the constant medical complications being caused by the contamination," he added.

Correspondents say the fact that the Bhopal tragedy is back in the news at the same time as the huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has added to the sense that victims of the 1984 disaster have been terribly let down.

Commentators in India have pointed out that the US government appears far more concerned about a disaster in its own back yard than one which took place years ago in the developing world.

There has also been trenchant criticism of the Indian government response over the years, and of Union Carbide - now owned by Dow Chemicals - for failing to do more to help.

An extradition treaty does exist between India and the United States - but so far all requests by India for Warren Anderson`s extradition have been turned down by the American government.

BDST:1238 HRS, June 25 2010
DC