Pervez Bari | Clarion India
BHOPAL – Five organisations of survivors of the Bhopal gas tragedy plan to revive their 13-year-long joint campaign for securing adequate compensation for all the survivors of the December 1984 Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal.
At a recent joint press conference here, the organisations released a copy of their letter sent to the prime minister and the minister of chemicals and fertilisers in this regard.
“We have written to the prime minister and the minister of chemicals and fertilisers urging them to follow through with the submissions made by the attorney general last year in the Supreme Court regarding inadequate compensation to Bhopal survivors. We have reminded them that the apex court has specifically directed the Government of India to make good the shortfall in compensation,” said Rashida Bee, president of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karamchari Sangh, a trade union of women survivors.
According to Balkrishna Namdev, president of Bhopal Gas Peedit Nirashrit Pensionbhogee Sangharsh Morcha, “The most glaring proof of Bhopal survivors being short-changed is that according to the latest data from the Welfare Commissioner’s office, 90 % of the 13,133 survivors who were diagnosed with cancers and kidney diseases had been originally assigned “temporary injury” category and paid just Rs25, 000 as compensation.”
“Records from Central and Madhya Pradesh state government hospitals show that gas-hit persons died at a rate 2.7 times more due to the COVID-19 pandemic in comparison to non-exposed population in the same district. This increased vulnerability to the pandemic is also significant proof that most Bhopal survivors suffered permanent and not temporary injuries,” said Rachna Dhingra of Bhopal Group for Information and Action who has authored a scientific paper on this subject.
Nawab Khan, president of Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha, said: “In our letter to the prime minister and minister of chemicals and fertilisers we have drawn their attention to the letter written by the then chief minister of the state Shivraj Singh Chouhan to the then prime minister on December 8, 2011. In his letter, Chouhan had sought Rs5 lakh as compensation for every person exposed to the poisonous gas. If not the Bhopal survivors, maybe they will listen to Chouhan who is currently their colleague in the Central cabinet.”
Legal & Constitutional Right
“It is indeed a pity that the Bhopal survivors have to fight for 13 long years to get adequate compensation which is their legal and constitutional right. Union Carbide’s documents clearly state that exposure to Methyl Iso-cyanate causes residual injury despite prompt treatment. For a government to ignore this is being blind to both science and justice. We hope to change this through peaceful action,” said Nousheen Khan of Children Against Dow Carbide.
On the intervening night of December 2-3 in 1984, the Union Carbide pesticide manufacturing factory spewed poisonous Methyl Iso-cyanate gas whereby 3,000 people perished virtually instantly, and over the years more than 25,000 have kissed death and the sad saga continues uninterruptedly. About half a million people are suffering from the side effects of the poisonous gas and several thousand people have been maimed for life.
