The Bhopal Gas Tragedy

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All's Not Well With The Bhopal Plant

Since 1980, the Bhopal plant had caused death and injury to many. In December 1981, plant operator Mohammed Ashraf was killed by a phosgene gas leak. Two other workers were injured. In May 1982, three American engineers from the chemical products and household plastics division of UCC came to Bhopal. Their task was to appraise the running of the plant and confirm that everything was functioning according to the standards laid down by UCC.

The report presented to the UCC officials revealed that all was not well with the Bhopal plant. The report described the surroundings of the site as being 'strewn with oily old drums, used piping, pools of used oil and chemical waste likely to cause fire.' It condemned the shoddy workmanship on certain connections, the warping of equipment, the corrosion of several circuits, the absence of automatic sprinklers in the MIC and phosgene production zones, and the risk of explosion in the gas evacuation flares. It also reported leaks of phosgene, MIC and chloroform, ruptures in pipework and sealed joints, absence of any earth wire on one of the three MIC tanks and poor adjustment of certain devises where excessive pressure could lead to water entering the circuits. At the same time, the report expressed concern at the inadequately trained staff, unsatisfactory instruction methods and sloppy maintenance reports.

Local newspapers in Bhopal published articles criticizing the poor management of the Bhopal plant. One newspaper said, "The day is not far off when Bhopal will be a dead city, when only scattered stones and debris will bear witness to its tragic end."⁴ In October 1982, MIC escaped from a broken valve, seriously affecting four workers and causing eye irritation and breathlessness among people in the nearby communities. This incident was a clear indication of the potential risk to public life.

In the early 1980s, UCC appointed Warren Woomer as the managing director of its pesticide plant in Bhopal. Analysts felt that this signaled the degree of control UCC wanted to exercise over UCIL. In 1982, Woomer retired and Jagannathan Mukund (Mukund) became the managing director. In 1983, under pressure from the parent company, Mukund devoted all his energies to cost cutting. Two hundred skilled workers and technicians were asked to resign.

In the MIC unit alone, the manpower in each shift was cut by half. In the control room, only one man was left to oversee some seventy dials, counters and gauges, which relayed, among other things, the temperature and pressure of the three tanks containing the MIC.

The issue of the danger posed by the pesticide plant to Bhopal was raised in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly in December 1982. However, T S Viyogi, labour minister in the Arjun Singh⁵ government allayed all fears saying, "A sum of Rs. 250 million has been invested in this unit. The factory is not a small stone, which can be shifted elsewhere. There is no danger to Bhopal, nor will there ever be." Equally confident was Mukund: "The gas leak just can't be from my plant. The plant is shut down.⁶ Our technology just can't go wrong, we just can't have such leaks," he said.

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4] Rapat Weekly, September 30, 1982.
5] The then Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh.
6] In 1982, Mukund stopped MIC production to empty the tanks where MIC was stored.