Bhopal gas tragedy: NGOs starts campaign for additional compensation

Organisations representing victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy urged governments to honour their promise of providing additional compensation to survivors and announced a month-long campaign

Organisations representing victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy on Tuesday urged the Central and state governments to honour their promise of providing additional compensation to survivors and announced a month-long campaign on the issue.

The NGOs fighting for the victims will also hold a peaceful rally in New Delhi on December 3 to mark the 38th anniversary of the disaster.

Five organisations representing survivors of the tragedy announced the launch of a month-long campaign starting Wednesday to make Central and state governments honour their promises of additional compensation before the 38th anniversary of the disaster, said Rachna Dhingra, a member of NGO Bhopal Group for Information and Action (BGIA).

We are launching our campaign to remind the governments at the state and Centre about the promises they made regarding additional compensation. We will spend the month of November convincing the state government and lead a peaceful rally on December 3 at Jantar Mantar to remind the Centre of its promises, said Rashida Bee, the president of Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh.

Dhingra presented copies of a letter written by the current chief minister to the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in January 2012, in which the official death count was made to be 15,342 and not 5,295 as presented in the curative petition.

In his letter, the chief minister had sought Rs 5 lakh to be paid as compensation to each person exposed to the toxic gas. What is stopping him from sending a similar letter to the present Prime Minister? she said.

Representatives of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha, Children Against Dow Carbide and Bhopal Gas Peedit Nirashrit Pensionbhogi Sangharsh Morcha were also present on the occasion.

Over 15,000 people were killed after methyl isocyanate leaked on the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984 from the pesticide plant of Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) on the outskirts of Bhopal city. More than five lakh people were affected due to the toxic leak.