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11:04am (UK)
Chemical Giant to Pay £6 Billion Bhopal Compensation.
"PA"
US chemical giant Dow has accepted full responsibility for the Bhopal disaster in India that killed 15,000 people and today announced a £6 billion compensation package, a company spokesman told BBC World television.
“Today I am very, very happy to announce that today, for the first time Dow is accepting full responsibility for the Bhopal catastrophe,” said spokesman Jude Finisterra. “This is a momentous occasion.”
“We have a 12 billion dollars plan to finally at long last fully compensate the victims including the 120,000 who may need medical care for their entire lives and to fully and swiftly remediate the Bhopal plant site.”
A lethal gas escape from a chemical plant in the central Indian city of Bhopal has claimed the lives of 15,000 people over the last 20 years and many more have severe medical problems.
The factory was owned by Union Carbide, now a subsidiary of Dow Chemical.
“We have resolved to liquidate Union Carbide, this nightmare for the world and this headache for Dow and use the 12 billion to provide more than 500 dollars (£260) per victim, which is all that they’ve seen,” Finisterra told the BBC.
Dow had maintained the legal case was resolved in 1989, when Union Carbide settled with the Indian government for more than £250 million.
PA
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