Bhopal Gas tragedy victims being treated for cancer

Bhopal, Dec 1 (UNI) More than two decades after the Bhopal gas tragedy, several victims have started showing symptoms of cancer.

A total of 693 such patients were referred to the city's Jawaharlal Nehru Cancer Hospital and provided medical facilities at a cost of more than Rs 8 crore, official sources said today.

On the eve of the 23rd anniversary of Bhopal gas tragedy, the government claimed that about Rs 296 crore had been spent on medical rehabilitation of gas affected people.

The first action plan for gas-affected people's medical rehabilitation was for Rs 150.35 crore against which Rs 296.17 crore had been spent, while additional Rs 145.82 crore had been spent by the sState government from its own resources, official sources said.

At present, 32 medical centres are in operation in gas-hit areas and the Bhopal Memorial Hospital Trust's main hospital provides specialised treatment to the affected people. During 2007, about a million people turned up at different hospitals in these areas seeking medicare, government sources said.

Thousands people had died and several lakh others affected after several tonnes of toxic Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) leaked from the now-closed Union Carbide Corporation's pesticide factory here on the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984.

Hearing, on a criminal case with regard to the tragedy, was still in progress in a local court. Dow Chemicals had already taken over UCC and its Indian subsidiary. UCC had earlier reached a one-time settlement with Indian government for payment of 470 million dollars as compensation.

UNI