Post date: Mar 21, 2013 3:38:13 PM
Social activists and organisations, who continue their fight for justice for the victims of the 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy incident, seek for political support for their demands, while keeping the upcoming elections as the bait for the political parties.
BHOPAL, MADHYA PRADESH, INDIA (MARCH 21, 2013) (ANI) - Social activists and organisations, who continue their fight for justice for the victims of the 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy incident, sought for political support for their demands, while keeping the upcoming elections as the bait for the political parties.
About five social groups in central Bhopal city have jointly sent out letters to the various political parties demanding them to make it into a political agenda ahead of the next elections.While talking to mediapersons about their move, social activist Satinath Sarangisaid it was high time that the issue of the Bhopal gas victims should be made into a potent political agenda.
"It is unfortunate that till now the political parties have not even considered this matter as an election issue. So this time we are determined that this matter should be made an election issue, and the gas victims will decide the winners and the losers. So we are also asking the parties regarding the gas victims that what they would do to put pressure on the federal government over this?" he said on Thursday (March 21).
The letters sent out explicitly make the demand of the political parties to clear their stand on the issue and have asked for their support regarding some prime demands of the victims.
The demands include points such as the additional compensation for the gas disaster, correction of figures of injury and death caused by the disaster, clean up of contaminated soil and ground water, compensation for injuries and birth defects caused by toxic contamination, setting up of empowered commission for rehabilitation and stopping Dow Chemical from doing business in India till it presents Union Carbide in the ongoing criminal case on the disaster.
India's apex court had cited that existence of toxic waste is hazardous to health and had set a deadline for disposal of the waste by December 2012.
In the early hours of December 03, 1984, around 40 metric tonnes of toxic methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas leaked into the atmosphere from the plant of Union Carbideand the breeze carried the lethal gas to the surrounding slums.
The government says around 3,500 died because of the disaster.
However, social activists fighting for the rights of the victims estimate that nearly 25,000 people died in the immediate aftermath and the years that followed.
Affected people say the compensation given was based on government figures from the immediate aftermath that are grossly under-estimated.
They say people are still dying every day due to the ill effects of the gas. Survivors are demanding that Dow Chemical pay more equitable relief to the tens of thousands who continue to suffer.
Activists and lawyers representing the affected people say the plant site has not been cleaned up and thousands of tonnes of toxic chemical waste have seeped into the soil over the years, contaminating groundwater that is drinking water for around 20,000 people.
The activists also added here that if the political parties don't give in their replies in writing within a month then they would openly campaign among the gas victims to do null voting in the next elections.
The state of Madhya Pradesh goes on polls later this year as the present tenure of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led state government ends in October.
"If we do not hear from any of these political parties in writing, we will openly launch a campaign and ask the people of Bhopal, the gas survivors to carry out their right of null voting which basically means they do not find any candidate up to the power which will ensure justice for Bhopal gas victims," said Rachna Dhingra, another social activist.
A criminal case is pending against the then CEO of Union Carbide, Warren Anderson, whom lawyers say was responsible for the disaster and the contamination of the soil and water around the factory. There is a warrant for Anderson's arrest in India.
Union Carbide settled its liabilities with the Indian government in 1989 by paying 470 million dollars before another US-based company, Dow Chemicals, bought it over.
The Indian government is trying to see if Dow can be held liable and be forced to pay up more compensation whereas it denies owning up any responsibility.