By Pervez Bari,
Bhopal, 04 Nov 2014: The representatives of five organizations working for welfare of the survivors of the 1984 Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal, the world’s worst industrial catastrophe, have announced to hold indefinite water-less fast at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi from 10th Nov on the issue of compensation.
Addressing a Press conference here on Monday, the representatives said that five women survivors will stop taking any food or water demanding additional compensation for all survivors of the disaster and correction of figures of death and extent of injury in the curative petition filed in the Supreme Court of India by the federal government.
The agitation would be organised under the joint banner of five survivors’ organisations and hundreds of survivors would support the fast by sitting with the five women at the venue every day, representatives of the organisations said at the press conference. The organisations joining the agitation are Bhopal Group of Information and Action, (BGIA), Bhopal Gas Peedit Nirashrit Pensionbhogi Sangharsh Morcha, Children Against Dow Carbide, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmachari Sangh and the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha, (BGPMPSM).
Ms Rashida Bi, president of a trade union of women survivors said that the ex-gratia compensation of Indian rupees 100,000 was given to only 33,672 survivors among the 5,69,081 people exposed to Union Carbide’s toxic gas. “There is no scientific or legal basis to deny additional compensation to 93 per cent of the victims. Our protest at Jantar Mantar is for additional compensation of Indian rupees 100,000 for all gas victims”, she said.
Satinath Sarangi of BGIA and Nawab Khan, president of BGPMPSM, said the figures of death (5,295) and extent of injury caused by the Union Carbide presented in the curative petition are far lower than the findings of the Indian Council of Medical Research, (ICMR), and other scientific agencies. The death figure has risen to around 25,000 and almost all the 5.69 lakh odd victims are still suffering acutely. The government, they accused, is downplaying the damage caused by the Union Carbide.
Balkrishna Namdeo, president of an organization fighting for social support for the needy, said: “The government is seeking only 1.2 billion US dollars (Indian Rs.6,000 crore) as additional compensation in the Curative petition whereas it should be asking for at least 8.1 billion US dollars (Indian Rs.37,000 crores) from the American corporations.”
Union Carbide had come to a settlement in 1989 by paying meagre $470 million to the Indian government. Critics have maintained that the amount is too low, and must be hiked.
Meanwhile, the death of Warren Anderson, 92, former chairman of the erstwhile American multinational Union Carbide, sent the victims in celebratory mode last week with scores of them coming out on the streets in Bhopal and throwing slippers on Anderson’s posters.
Extradition and prosecution of Anderson was a long pending demand of the gas victim organisations. “Anderson Ko Phansi Do” (Hang Anderson) was one of the popular war cries of the gas activists and in the last 30 years while thousands of his effigies must have been burnt in the city. All efforts to bring Anderson to book, however, came to a nought and ultimately, he lived a peaceful life in a posh neighbourhood in New York and passed away in a hospital. ([email protected])
