Seven organisations, working for the rights of the survivors’ of Bhopal gas disaster, have strongly condemned the recommendations of the Group of Ministers (GoM) on Bhopal.
Calling the GoM’s offer of compensation a smokescreen, the NGOs have said in a statement that the GoM pretends to offer relief and rehabilitation, but the details reveal that issues of compensation, rehabilitation and corporate liability are totally ignored.
The NGOs that have come out openly against the recommendations are Children Against Dow-Carbide, Bhopal Gas Peedit Nirashrit Pension Bhogi Sangharsh Morcha, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangathan, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh, Bhopal Gas Peedit Sangharsh Sahayog Samiti, and Bhopal Group for Information and Action.
These organisations have said that the compensation recommended by the GoM will go to less than 10 per cent of people known to be exposed to Union Carbide’s toxic gases.
“The GoM has based its decision on the notoriously flawed system of damage assessment that was designed to downplay and diminish the death and injury caused by Union Carbide Corporation.
It has made no recommendations regarding review of death claims or registration of exposure related death claims after 1997, when such registration was arbitrarily stopped.”
Making this assertion, Mr Abdul Jabbar, convenor of Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangathan, said that the GoM has denied any additional compensation to 521,000 [91 per cent] survivors who received a paltry sum of Rs 25, 000 for life-long injuries.”
The GoM has gone back on its June 2008 decision to concede Bhopal’s long-standing demand to set up an Empowered Commission on Bhopal to oversee rehabilitation. Instead, it proposes to transfer Rs 720 crores to the Madhya Pradesh government for medical, economic, social, and environmental rehabilitation. “More than Rs 530 crores have already been spent by the M.P. government in the name of relief and rehabilitation, and there is nothing to show for this.
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Former SP quits river project
AGE CORRESPONDENT
BHOPAL
June 22: Grievance Redressal Authority (Madhya Pradesh Narmada Valley projects) member Swaraj Puri on Tuesday handed over charge following his unceremonious removal by the state government on the issue of granting safe passage to former Union Corporation chief Warren Anderson in his capacity as Bhopal superintendent of police at the time of the 1984 gas disaster.
Mr Puri, who was earlier the director-general of the state police, refused to say anything on this subject. When pressed for a statement, he told mediapersons that he shall speak at the opportune moment and at the correct forum. —PTI