Bhopal gas leak survivors threaten hunger strike from March 5

New Delhi, Mar 1 (UNI) Survivors of the Bhopal gas leak tragedy and their supporters today threatened to launch an indefinite hunger-strike from March 5 if their long-pending demands of cleaning up of the environment, clean drinking water, medical care and social rehabilitation were not immediately met.

Representatives of the survivors, who have been on protest in Bhopal, charged the Madhya Pradesh government with obstructing medical care and rehabilitation.

''We have been sitting on dharna for the last many days but neither Chief Minister Shiv Raj Singh Chouhan nor his officials have met us,'' Rashida Bi, a survivor of the 1984 Union Carbide gas tragedy and winner of Goldman Environmental Prize, said in a statement.

She alleged that a special coordination committee on Bhopal, which was set up at the behest of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last year, was yet to start implementation of key decisions taken regarding relief and rehabilitation.

Satinath Sarangi from Bhopal Group of Information and Action claimed that 22 years after the disaster, more than 100,000 survivors were suffering from chronic problems such as breathlessness, cerebral palsy and acute deformities.

''But in the absence of monetary help for medical needs from the state, their agony has only worsened,'' Mr Sarangi said.

Last year in April, 55 survivors and their supporters walked 800 km from Bhopal to New Delhi. After 17 days of sit-in and seven days of hunger strike, they had met the Prime Minister who had assured them that their demands will be met.

UNI