Gas Tragedy: Week-long signature campaign

Bhopal, May 31 (UNI) A week-long signature campaign will be launched tomorrow to make the entire Madhya Pradesh capital's denizens eligible for compensation for the 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy.

''Signatures will be obtained from more than one lakh victims and the list handed over to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,'' MLA and former Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Umashankar Gupta told reporters here today.

Pointing out that in 1986, the Centre's gazette notification authorised a survey of all 56 wards, he felt it was ironical that compensation was being doled out to 36.

''Various central committees -- including a Coordination Comittee headed by Justice N K Kasliwal and the Gas Petroleum Standing Committee chaired by Mr A R Antulay -- recommended that the residents of the 20 wards also be declared Gas Tragedy-affected,'' Mr Gupta added.

In May 2005, HRD Minister Arjun Singh chaired a GoM meeting and concurred with the state government's demand to extend disbursal of compensation to the 20 wards.

''Mr Singh felt it was illogical to keep these wards out of the purview. He said that the Centre should obtain statistics from the Madhya Pradesh government, estimate the extra amount and apprise the Premier. All the details have been furnished by the state government,'' the legislator said.

When asked whether the Madhya Pradesh regime would provide any finances for the compensation, Mr Gupta explained that the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's Gas Disaster Plan enshrined a provision that said the Centre would provide the amount.

''It is also ironical that on the one hand the Centre considers the 20 wards' residents as unaffected but 5,226 claimants from these areas have already availed compensation from gas courts after presenting evidence. As many as 127 fatalities in these wards were blamed on Methyl Isocyanate,'' the MLA claimed.

UNI