Bhopal . Four organizations working for the people affected by the Bhopal gas tragedy, the world’s worst industrial disaster, on Saturday said they have filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court seeking additional compensation for victims suffering from cancer and kidney disorders. A total of 5,479 people were killed and more than five lakh were physically affected after poisonous gas leaked from the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal on the intervening night of 2nd and 3rd December 1984.
Rachna Dhingra of ‘Bhopal Group for Information and Action’ told reporters here, the petition has been filed two days ago to correct the injustice in the compensation given to the victims. We hope that it will be heard on December 3, which is the 40th anniversary of the Bhopal gas tragedy. He said the petition seeks additional compensation for those suffering from cancer and kidney diseases, whose health damage caused by exposure to the gas has been wrongly categorized as temporary.
Union Carbide’s own documents clearly state that the health damage caused by exposure to ‘methyl isocyanate’ is of permanent nature, Dhingra alleged. Despite this, the official agency considered 93 per cent of compensation claims as temporary damages and this was the main reason behind inadequate compensation to gas victims, he said. Sharing information obtained through applications filed under the Right to Information Act (RTI), Rashida B, president of Bhopal Gas Victims Mahila Stationary Employees Organization, said, as per official records, 90 per cent of the 11,278 victims suffered from cancer and the disease was fatal. “Of the 1,855 victims suffering from kidney diseases, 91 per cent have received only Rs 25,000 as compensation apart from ex-gratia.”
Balkrishna Namdev of Bhopal Gas Victim Destitute Pensioners Sangharsh Morcha claimed that former Chief Justice of Orissa High Court, Dr. S. Muralidhar has agreed to present the petition of the four NGOs in the apex court. Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha President Nawab Khan, citing Supreme Court orders of 1991 and 2023, claimed that the top court has clearly said that any shortfall in compensation to the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy cannot be justified. Must be completed by the Central Government. “To rectify the glaring case of deficiency, we have filed a petition for additional compensation of at least Rs 5 lakh for survivors of cancer and fatal kidney diseases,” he said.
