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Monday, Apr 11, 2005

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Life-long pension sought for Bhopal gas victims

By Our Staff Correspondent

BHOPAL, APRIL 10. The Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangathan (BGPMUS), a non-Government organisation campaigning for the cause of the gas victims, has demanded life-long pension of Rs. 1000 per month for the widows and over 100,000 gas victims who have been left physically impaired by the Union Carbide gas disaster of 1984.

The BGPMUS convener, Abdul Jabbar, raised this demand at a press conference called here today keeping in focus the "much awaited" meeting of the Group of Ministers scheduled to be held in Delhi under the chairmanship of the Union Human Resource Development Minister, Arjun Singh, tomorrow to take up issues linked with relief and rehabilitation of the Bhopal gas victims.

Besides pension, Mr. Jabbar said that the authorities should also take immediate steps to clean up the toxic waste left behind by the Union Carbide at their abandoned plant in the State Capital.

He said that 8000 metric tons of highly poisonous chemicals, still lying inside the factory premises, were polluting the ground water in a five square kilometer area. The irony is that the multinational company was allowed to hand over the factory premises to the State Government and wash its hands off all liability, he added.

Mr. Jabbar said that since people residing close to the now abandoned Carbide factory were being forced to drink polluted water, the State Government should make immediate arrangements to supply clean drinking water to the gas victims.

The Supreme Court had issued firm orders in this regard on May 7, 2004 but nothing substantial has been done to mitigate this problem, he pointed out.

Mr. Jabbar took a dig at the Central Government saying that even after responding to a US Appellate court judgment and sending a no objection certificate, it had done nothing to intervene and legally ensure that Dow Chemical was forced to clean up the Carbide site in Bhopal.

Mr. Jabbar said that BGPMUS would be sending fax messages to the Union Ministers, Arjun Singh, Ramvilas Paswan, Hansraj Bharadwaj and Suresh Pachouri asking them to set up an autonomous body and provide fundsfor the proper rehabilitation of gas victims. He told newspersons that after 1999, the gas victims were getting medical relief due to the Apex Court directives and nothing concrete was being done for their economic rehabilitation. He said that the Action Plan-I (Rs. 161.50 crores) for the rehabilitation of gas victims, which was scheduled for 1991-95 was still incomplete. It is due to this reason that the State Government's Action Plan-II had been rejected by the Centre in 1997.

Mr. Jabbar said that in the last 20 years, barring the former State Chief Minister, Motilal Vora, no other Chief Minister has done anything worth writing home about when it comes to protecting the interests or ensuring proper relief and rehabilitation of gas victims.

The Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Babulal Gaur, is now under test and it remains to be seen whether he would be raising only the demand of extending the compensation package to the remaining 20 municipal wards of the city or would seriously take up the rehabilitation issue in its totality with the Centre.

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