The Madhya Pradesh government has issued orders for monthly pension of Rs.1,000 for the next five years to the widows of victims of the Union carbide gas tragedy, a release said here on Thursday.
The statement said that the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, Relief And Rehabilitation Department has issued directives for the distribution of pension among the widows.
The gas relief commissioner has already awarded compensation in 5,245 death cases.
The widows, who had been paid Rs.1 lakh after the death of their husbands, will be eligible for the pension. The Union carbide disaster, in which poisonous methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas leaked from the plant on the night of December 2-3, 1984, killed 3,000 people instantly and 25,000 over the years. It also affected 100,000 people that night and estimates are that more than 500,000 continue to suffer from ill effects of the gas till date.