Bhopal gas disaster survivors hold demonstration

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

New Delhi, Mar 27: Survivors of the Bhopal gas disaster today (Mar 27, 2006) staged a demonstration here demanding justice, rehabilitation and life of dignity.

More than 38 survivors, who walked into Delhi on Saturday after a 800 km trek from Bhopal, demanded that the Government take steps to rehabilitate them and ensure their welfare.

They appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to directly intervene so that they get justice.

The survivors said they will start a fast unto death here next month till their six point charter of demands was met by the Government.

Their demands include, setting up of a national commission on Bhopal to oversee medical and social rehabilitation of the victims for the next 30 years; supply of safe drinking water to communities currently drinking poisoned water; speedy prosecution of the accused, including Union Carbide Corporation and its former chairman; environmental remediation; a ban on Dow Chemical and its subsidiary Union Carbide's business in India; and memorialising the disaster story by including it in school and college curriculum.

The survivors are being supported by the Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers' Association.

The demonstration was held at Jantar Mantar here and was addressed by tragedy victim Rashida Bi besides others.

''Doors are being opened for big companies that do business here on their own terms even as we continue to drink poisoned water and lose our dear ones to chronic illnesses,'' she said.

''It is sad that every Government since the tragedy in 1984 has prioritised the interests of such private companies instead of the people who have suffered. The killers are yet to be brought to justice,'' said Rashida, who heads the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationary Karamchari Sangh.

Rashida said six members of her own family were among those who died of medical complications since that December night in 1984 when tonnes of methyl isocyanate gas leaked from the Union Carbide plant.

Survivors suffering chronic illnesses have no Government assistance, she added.

''Our lives have been shattered beyond repair. We are drinking poisoned water. We are not here to hand over another memorandum to the Prime Minister. We will return only after our demands are met,'' she said.

According to the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal toxic wastes are still polluting water in the area, threatening the lives of communities living there.

UNI

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