33 Years On, Bhopal Gas Tragedy Survivors Still Await Adequate Payout

Thirty-three years after the Bhopal gas tragedy, survivors are still fighting for adequate compensation and proper medical treatment for ailments caused by the toxic leak.

Families of the deceased and people who bore the brunt of the industrial disaster are now signing a petition, to be sent to the Supreme Court, requesting it to start hearing a curative petition of the government filed in December 2010 for more compensation.

The U.S. company which then owned the chemical plant in Bhopal, from where the poisonous gas leaked in 1984, has not yet adequately compensated the victims, a Madhya Pradesh minister said.

The victims of the ‘world's worst industrial disaster' had not been paid adequately by U.S.-based Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) now owned by Dow Chemical, Madhya Pradesh's Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Vishwas Sarang told PTI.

He alleged that the then Central government led by the Congress was more interested in helping the multi-national company rather than bringing it to book.

He said the curative petition seeks compensation of more than Rs 1,000 crore from Union Carbide (now owned by Dow Chemical) for the welfare of the victims.

Abdul Jabbar, the convenor of the Bhopal Gas Peedith Mahila Udyog Sanghathan, who has been working for the survivors for over three decades, said Union Carbide gave a compensation of $470 million (Rs 715 crore) after the toxic gas leak from the Union Carbide factory on the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984, killed 3,000 people and affected 1.02 lakh others.

“We challenged the meagre compensation in the Supreme Court saying that the number of victims was too high and the compensation given by Union Carbide was too small, in 1989,” Jabbar said.

He added that the signature campaign for more compensation was launched by those whose health had been affected by the gas leak.

“We moved the apex court again in 2005 saying that the number of victims had swelled five-fold,” Jabbar said.

On December 3, 2010, the Centre and the state government filed a curative petition in the apex court seeking more compensation for the victims from UCC, Jabbar said.

“But nothing has happened after that. So now the sufferers are signing the petition, with a request to the Supreme Court to hear the curative petition and decide the matter at the earliest,” he added.

The survivors were suffering from many diseases, including cancer, tumours and lung problems, caused by the inhalation of the poisonous gas three decades ago, he said.

“They are not getting proper medical care as they don't have money,” Jabbar said.

On June 7, 2010, a Bhopal court convicted seven executives of Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) to two years' imprisonment in connection with the incident.

Anderson was the prime accused in the case but did not appear for the trial. On February 1, 1992, the Bhopal Chief Judicial Magistrate Court declared him an absconder.

The courts in Bhopal had issued non-bailable warrants against Anderson twice -- in 1992 and 2009.