Seven senior Indian managers convicted over the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy this month have appealed against the verdicts and their two-year jail terms and fines, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.
The convictions for criminal negligence, the first more than 25 years after the catastrophe, sparked uproar in the media and among survivors of the catastrophe because of the perceived leniency of the punishment.
The seven executives, all managers at the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal that spewed toxic gas into neighbouring slums in December 1984, have filed appeals in a local Bhopal court, The Express newspaper said.
The accident blamed on Union Carbide, a US chemical group that ran the plant, killed thousands of people instantly and tens of thousands more from its lingering effects over the following years.
In addition to the jail terms, the district court in Bhopal fined the seven local managers of the plant 100,000 rupees (2,000 dollars) each and the Indian subsidy of Union Carbide 500,000 rupees.
Outrage over the sentences cast a spotlight again on the stricken city where thousands of victims live in misery and the polluted pesticide plant still stands amid the slums due to an inadequate cleanup by the local government.
The central government has since set aside new federal funds to double the compensation for the families of the dead, clean up the site and improve local medical facilities.
The government will also renew its request to the United States to extradite Warren Anderson, the now retired chief executive of Union Carbide who is considered a fugitive in India where he is wanted for his role in the disaster.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Tuesday that India would press Washington to take a "more favourable attitude" towards Anderson's extradition.
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