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Bhopal gas tragedy-the union carbide story

The case is all about the tragic incident which is famously known as ͞ The Bhopal Gas Tragedy ͟

which took place at Bhopal in 1984, when the poisonous gas leaked out from the pesticide plant

of UCIL , the incident went on to become even worse because there was no alarm neither there

was a proper evacuation plan as a result the killer gas spread through the city and sending the

residents scurrying through the dark streets. In fact when the victims were taken into the

hospitals, doctors were unable to treat them because they dont have any clue about this

sudden tragedy as UCIL had not provided any emergency information to them. As a result many

people as well as animals lost their lives due to this tragic incident and due to the

irresponsibility on the part of UCIL.

UCIL was basically into the making of pesticides which required a compound called Meythyl

Isocyanate ( MIC) which is considered as one of the most chemicals and can cause death to any

living creature if exposed directly to them , there fore to store this type of compound (MIC) it

requires lots of precautions in order to avoid the various hazards .

Despite these factors UCIL set up their pesticide factory in the midst of densely populated area

and did not bother to take proper preventive measures to stop various hazards, on the top of

that the work force of the factory was downsized , the maintenance supervisor was also fired

and the period of safety training to the workers was also reduced later.

All these indicates that they were clearly violating the principals of corporate governance as in

here they were violating the rule of ͞Obligation to the society at large ͞ as they were not
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transparent in their actions despite knowing the fact they were into a business where

poisonous gases are stored as a raw materials and they were even reducing the number of

employees by not taking proper precautions as it always mention in the Corporate Governance

that a company should not commit any action which is against the benefit of the economic

development of the countries in which it operates and should not engage in any activity that

would militate against such objective.

A sound Corporate Governance rule says that a company should be transparent in whatever the

activities they are indulge in , and should always protect the interest their employees as well as

their stake holders , but what UCIL was doing they were gradually reducing the safety training

period of their workers and keeping the people of Bhopal in disguise that they all are safe and

secure despite the various loopholes found in the safety measure of UCIL .

Afterwards , when UCIL was blamed for this mishap they defended by saying that the fault was

not on the part of them but it was rather the fault of Government of India who gave them

permission to setup their plant at densely populated area , but at last UCC was proved guilty for

that disaster and they agreed to compensate the victims by paying US$470 as a full and final

settlement which was accepted by GOI .

But here what the concern lies is the amount which has been offered by UCC as a

compensation to victims , GOI accepted that amount without even consulting the victims and

by agreeing the condition to stop further legal proceedings against the company and its

officials. This incident arouse the question that whether GOI itself following the norms of

Corporate Governance or not , which still remains the mystery.