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Bhopal gas victims seek details of Nuclear Liability Bill from PMO | Victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, described
as one of the world's worst ever industrial disasters, have filed a Right to Information ( RTI ) petition with the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) here. The RTI plea wants
to know whether the Central Government took into consideration the disaster of
gas leak at the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal in 1984 while drafting the Civil
Nuclear Liability Bill with the USA . Representatives of three non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) - Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmachari Sangh, Bhopal
Group for Information and Action and Children against Dow Carbide - accompanied
the victims to the PMO. It may be recalled that over 50 victims of the Bhopal
gas tragedy walked over 800 kilometres on foot from Bhopal to New Delhi and met
the Prime Minister in 2008. The government had then their assured them that an
empowered commission would be constituted to address grievances and would initiate
remedial measures. Citing that assurance of 2008, the protestors alleged that
nothing has been done so far. "When we came on a foot march to New Delhi to meet
the Prime Minister in 2008, at that time the government assured us that they would
form an empowered commission to address the demands of victims like removal of
hazardous waste, treatment of contaminated water, pensions to widows etc. among
others but we have not received anything," said Zakiya, a victim. The protestors
also questioned the amount included in the Nuclear Liability Bill. The Bill which
proposes a liability cap of 300 million dollars on the supplier in case of a mishap.
"They want to find out how the cap of 450 million dollars was fixed because this
is even less than what the Bhopalis were paid as compensation and which was not
sufficient enough to meet the medical expenses for five years," noted Satinath
Sarangi, an activist of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action. In the early
hours of December 3, 1984 , around 40 metric tonnes of toxic methyl isocyanate
(MIC) gas leaked into the atmosphere and was carried by wind to surrounding slums.
The government says around 3,500 died in the disaster. Rights activists, however,
claim that 25,000 people have died so far. |
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