Gas tragedy: CM office lost victims' petitions, alleges NGO

An NGO fighting for the rights of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy victims today alleged that Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's office has lost 1,500 memorandums submitted by the affected persons in support of their various demands.
The NGO demanded action against those responsible for the lapse.
"We submitted 1,500 memorandums to the Chief Minister on the occasion of 28th anniversary of the gas tragedy, but it is most unfortunate that his office has lost them which reflects the kind of seriousness on the part of the government in solving the problems being faced by large number of gas affected persons," Bhopal Gas Victims' women's wing convener, Abdul Jabbar told reporters.

"This fact was revealed when despite Chouhan's assurance, no meeting was organised with the NGOs fighting for the rights of the gas victims by the government even after two months of the Chief Minister's directive," Jabbar said.
Jabbar alleged that despite several reminders to the government on the issue, on May 10 an official had called to inform that the memorandums, submitted on December 3 last, had not reached the office yet, further demanding for a copy to initiate a process to organise the meeting.
However, the official admitted that they had received ten reminders for organising a meeting in this regard, he said.

"The act of the state government is nothing but a major betrayal towards the five lakh gas-affected people," Jabbar said.
Jabbar suspected that it was deliberately being done by some vested interests to grab Rs 275 crore out of the total Rs 982.75 crore sanctioned by the Centre for providing relief to the gas-affected persons and demanded strict action against those responsible for it.
When contacted for comments on the issue, Chief Minister's secretary S K Mishra said that they were looking into the matter.