State, Centre 'delaying' compensation for Bhopal Gas tragedy

NGOs working for the rights of the survivors of the Bhopal Gas disaster today alleged that there was a "deliberate delay" by the state and central governments in securing for the affected persons additional compensation from Union Carbide and Dow Chemical.
"Exactly a year ago, organisations had won their battle for revision of data on disaster-related deaths and injury after a four-day waterless hunger strike by six city women," Bhopal Group for Information and Action (BGIA)'s Satinath Sarangi told reporters here.
The hunger strike was withdrawn only after the Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilisers agreed to seek correct figures for disaster-related injuries and deaths from the agencies concerned, he said.

Sarangi said that as per the agreement with organisations, figures of injuries were to be obtained from records of hospitals run by Madhya Pradesh government.
Additionally, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) was to provide scientific estimates of casualties on the basis of their research in Bhopal.
It was understood that based on the figures provided by state and central agencies, the ministry would consider revising data presented in the curative petition seeking additional compensation from the American corporations, he said.

Rashida Bee, President of Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh, alleged that the state government took six months to reply to the letter from the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers.

"Almost a year has passed and it has still not provided the number of gas-exposed people who visited the hospitals specially-built for them in the years following the disaster," she alleged.
President of Bhopal Gas Peedit Nirashrit Pensionbhogee Sangharsh Morcha, Balkrishna Namdeo, said that documents obtained under Right to Information (RTI) Act show that the experts of ICMR continue to dodge the questions posed to them by the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers.
Sarangi also said that the organisations will soon move Delhi High Court against the ICMR experts who he alleged were denying the Bhopal Gas tragedy survivors their titutional right to justice.