Leaders representing a number of organisations devoted to the cause of the 1984 Union Carbide gas disaster on Monday expressed shock and unhappiness over the fact that Union home minister P. Chidambaram’s itinerary linked with his visit to the state capital on Tuesday did not include any meeting with the survivors of the worst industrial disaster even though he is heading the group of ministers on Bhopal tragedy.
Five organisations of Bhopal survivors faxed a memorandum to Mr Chidambaram on the eve of his Bhopal visit reminding him to keep the promise made in the Bhopal Act of 1985 to protect the best interests of the victims vis-a-vis the American corporation.
When contacted, Rachna Dhingra of Bhopal Group for Information and Action said that they have been told by Bhopal inspector-general of the police that a meeting between Mr Chidambaram and representatives of the survivor’s organisation will be arra-nged at Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre on Tuesday.
Rashida Bee, president of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh, said: “The Central government has accepted that Bhopal victims have not been compensated adequately by Union Carbide and has filed a curative petition in the Supreme Court for enhancement of compensation. But the figures of death and injuries caused by the Union Carbide disaster have been downplayed badly. The curative petition says more than 90 per cent of the victims have suffered only temporary injury. This is totally against records of government hospitals that show that over half a million victims were receiving treatment for chronic illnesses even 18 years after the disaster.” .
Satinath Sarangi of Bhopal Group for Information and Action said that in the first nine years after the disaster, more than 12,000 persons died as a consequence of toxic exposure. Research by the Madhya Pradesh government’s Centre for Rehabilitation Studies shows that one gas victim was dying untimely death every day as late as in 2001.
Yet the central government has presented a ridiculously low figure of 5295 as the death toll of the disaster, he added.
Reiterating the demands placed before Mr Chidambaram, Nawab Khan of Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha said: “The Supreme Court is yet to hear the curative petition for enhancement of compensation and we still have a few months for the figures of death and injury to be corrected.”
Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangathan convenor Abdul Jabbar also told mediapersons that the government of India and the state government were only talking in terms of the disposal of toxic waste kept in a warehouse at the abandoned Union Carbide plant here and no one is seriously considering options for the disposal of toxic waste lying abandoned in the open and in the waste disposal pits as a result of which ground water is continuously getting polluted.