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July 26, 2005
Stop Chemplast returning to Cuddalore: company indicted for careless and dangerous waste disposal wants to return to the heavily polluted SIPCOT site
CUDDALORE, July 26, 2005
Villagers living near the SIPCOT industrial estate near Cuddalore are fighting to prevent the return to the lethally polluted facility (see previous entry) of arch-polluter Chemplast.
Chemplast, the PVC manfacturer from Mettur, was driven out of Cuddalore in 2002. It went to Andhra. But Cuddalore villagers and activists got there earlier. They invited Andhra villagers to Mettur where Chemplast sits atop the Mettur Dam and discharges its wastes into the Cauveri river. The Andhra villagers went back determined not to let Chemplast anywhere near their homes. Nearly 5000 villagers turned up at the public hearing and drove the company out. Now Chemplast is back in Tamilnadu, trying to wriggle its way into Cuddalore. "Chemplast is desperate," says activist Nityanand Jayaraman, "because this project will make or break its PVC business."
To find out what you can do to support the Cuddalore villagers and to stop Chemplast, please visit http://www.sipcotcuddalore.com/
PVC or polyvinyl chloride has massive environmental and human health costs. From its manufacture to its disposal, PVC emits toxic compounds. During the manufacture of the building block ingredients of PVC (such as vinyl chloride monomer) dioxin and other persistent pollutants are emitted into the air, water and land, which present both acute and chronic health hazards. During use, PVC products can leach toxic additives, for example flooring can release softeners called phthalates. When PVC reaches the end of its useful life, it can be either landfilled, where it leaches toxic additives or incinerated, again emitting dioxin and heavy metals. When PVC burns in accidental fires, hydrogen chloride gas and dioxin are formed.
CHEMPLAST INDICTED FOR "INDISCRIMINATE DISPOSAL" OF WASTES
Chennai, July 25: The Mettur Indian People's Tribunal on Environment and Human Rights, a panel constituted by activists, released a report in the city on Monday on the "indiscriminate disposal" of hazardous wastes by Chemplast Sanmar in Mettur near Salem district of Tamil Nadu.
The panel headed by Justice Akbar Basha Kadri, retired judge, Madras high court, which went on a three-day tour of the 35 villages surrounding Mettur between April 29 and May 1 this year, claimed that Chemplast Sanmar and MALCO have caused "irreparable damage" to the people and environment of the town.
Speaking to reporters here, Justice Kadri said the panel had met about 800 villagers and former employees of the two factories and were appalled by the health disorders the villagers were suffering from, allegedly because of the toxic effluents discharged by Chemplast with the consent of the state pollution board into the river Cauvery.
Many women had suffered miscarriages and children had lung disorders, while several residents were suffering from lung and stomach cancer. Due to handling mercury wastes, without gloves, some of the villagers' hands had turned white and fingers had become crooked. Even the cattle and goats had died, he claimed.
R. Madeswaran, a villager from Mettur, alleged that the chemical release from Chemplast's chlorine plant last year had caused severe damage to the health of children in the town and the villagers had spent a fortune on hospitals for treatment. He said that whey they lodged a complaint with the police, the authorities claimed that there was no leak. Mr. Kadri said that the agricultural land had become unfit for the cultivation of any crop. Even the water in the 15 wells they had surveyed had become brackish and was emitting a foul smell. The red mud dumped on the banks of the Stanley reservoir by MALCO Ltd could pose a threat to the rivers in the state by polluting them, according to the panel. Based on its findings, the panel has made a few recommendations like supply of clean water to the villagers, compensation for the damage to health and cattle and an immediate stop to the dumping of red mud, among others. The villagers do not want the factories to close down, but only follow the prescribed norms.
In response to the panel's study, Chemplast issued a statement on Monday condemning the campaign as malicious. The company claimed that it has not violated the norms prescribed by the Tamilnadu Pollution Control Board. The release said, that it did not manufacture many of the chemicals as claimed by the panel. Chemplast was not responsible for the death of any fish in river Cauvery and it had not discharged any smelly effluent into the river. It also said that the quantum of effluent discharge had come down from 4000 KL to 1500 KL per day.
The company has launched a programme to achieve zero discharge at Mettur at a cost of Rs. 20 crores. The treated solid waste generated in its plant was placed in secure landfills and there was no possibility of percolation of wastes from the pits to the adjacent sub-soil and water bodies, the company said.
Posted by bhola at 09:33 AM | Comments (0)
July 25, 2005
Fishy Tales: how industry is destroying a river, a way of a life and a community's health in Cuddalore
FISH EXPORTS FROM CUDDALORE DECLINE DRAMATICALLY AS CHEMICAL INFLUX FROM INDUSTRIES INTO THE ENVIRONMENT INCREASE.
By VK Shashikumar
Murthy, a fisherman from Sonanchawdi village in Cuddalore despairs over the chemical influx in the Uppanar River. "Our fishing activities have been grievously affected and the children in our community show signs of chemical poisoning. They complain of breathing disorders and nausea. The children are not growing properly and there are many who have stunted growth. It seems there is something wrong with their bones. A 14-year-old girl looks like she is 7 or 8. Many of our community members also complain of infertility."
But the most damaging impact has been on the fishing trade. "Even Germany is not buying our prawns any more because of the chemical contamination. The prawns that we catch can find no market and are thrown away. There's no bottom life in the riverbed any more, no algae, nothing for the fish to feed on. Earlier when we caught the fish they would be alive for 5 minutes, now they don't even survive for 30 seconds," says Murthy.
The fishermen say that during the rainy season the water level rises and washes away the contamination in the water and the silt in the river doesn't have many contaminants enabling survival of bottom life on the riverbed. At this time the prawn catch is good. Pollution has made fishing dependent on the rainy season.
Sukumar, a fisherman from Thaikalthunithorai village says that people
have generally stopped eating fish in this region because there seems to be direct relation between consumption of toxic contaminants in the fish and health problems like headaches and blisters on the body. "We have a dug a 300 feet bore well to draw out drinking water. But this water can't be stored beyond a day because it begins to smell and we have also noticed that an oily film on the surface of stored water.
Vasanta from Eechankaadu village bemoaned the cancer of pollution that
has destroyed the Uppanar River. "The chemical in the water corrodes
kitchen utensils," she said. "The Uppanar was beautiful earlier. The
children would go there, so would the cattle. Now it's filled with
sludge. If you step in it you will instantly develop skin rashes."
Twenty years ago when SIPCOT industrial estate was set up in Cuddalore it was done without taking environmental degradation into account. Like most project planning in India, planners of industrial estates ignored the heavy price that communities and the eventually the country pays when the sustainability of the ecology is not factored as the key element of any industrial development plan. "First they started building big companies. For the first few years we couldn't tell the difference but soon we realised that our lives would be changed forever by the pollution emanating from the industries," said Vasanta.
According to Nityanand Jayaram, a writer and environment activist who
took an active part in training the villagers to monitor analyse and
document environment pollution, "chemical odours are an indicator of
gross pollution and that the release of toxic gases from industries
represents a case of hazardous waste dumping into the atmosphere."
Currently, no regulatory agency requires or monitors the air for toxic
gases such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and sulphur compounds.
Fed up with the degrading quality of their lives the villagers in
Cuddalore helped by Jayaram and other activists resolved to make their
habitats safe for future generations. The villagers in Cuddalore now go on regular pollution patrol exercises. They collect air samples and
analyse them for pollutants. This grassroots movement has even attracted the attention of the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee.
SIPCOT Area Community Environmental Monitors are the first to have
conducted a study on toxic gases in ambient air in India. The findings of the report confirm that residents in SIPCOT have been exposed to toxic gases for at least 20 years. The report's findings corroborate the persistent complaints by residents about pollution-related health effects and bear particular relevance to the health of women, children and the elderly who spend all their time within the polluted confines of the SIPCOT villages.
In fact, the SCMC has referred to the 'Gas Trouble' generated by the
villagers of Cuddalore. The Committee also said that such studies ought to be carried out by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB). "The Board ought to seriously respect the 'data' provided in the complaints by human beings and the living sensors of human ears, throats and skin to industrial pollution," stated SCMC.
The TNPCB has yet to come out with authentic information regarding the
nature and levels of toxic gases in the ambient air in the residential
areas in and around SIPCOT. The 'Gas Trouble' report has indicated
presence of 22 toxic chemicals that are harmful to eyes, respiratory
system, central nervous system, skin, liver, heart, kidney etc. Some of these chemicals are even known to cause cancer. Air quality measurements conducted by village monitors at different locations have reportedly shown concentration of toxic gaseous compounds far in excess of standards permissible under the United States Environment Protection Agency (USEPA). For many of these compounds there is no Indian standard as yet.
The SCMC has set an ultimatum to the TNPCB that "If the air pollution
around Cuddalore is not reversed within three months, from the date of
this Report, that is, by December 31, 2004, the entire Cuddalore
industrial estate shall go for closure and units will be allowed to
reopen only if they meet the currently available standards (applicable in this case) laid down under the USEPA for volatile organic compounds or CPCB (central pollution control board) standards if made available during this period." However, the three-month deadline has gone by and in Cuddalore its business as usual.
This article is published under the fellowship programme of the National Foundation for India
Posted by bhola at 06:56 PM | Comments (0)
July 15, 2005
High Court stays "clean up": petitioners ask Dow to deposit funds for remediation to international standards
15 July, 2005
A division bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court has stayed shifting and disfiguration of property of the now-closed pesticide plant of the MNC Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) at Bhopal.
Local woman Noor Jehan lies in hospital after the bungled "clean-up" attempt sent a cloud of chemical dust over her neighbourhood.
The bench, comprising Chief Justice R V Raveendran and Justice S S Khemkar issued the directive yesterday on a PIL filed by Mr Alok Pratap Singh of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Sangathan and others.
The petitioners contended that the chemicals lying in the 88-acre factory premises were causing air and water pollution in adjoining areas and sought directives to prevent pollution.
During the hearing, the counsel for the Union government said that about Rs 100 crore were required for shifting of the chemicals and sought a court directive to the UCC and its present owner Dow Chemicals and Eveready India Ltd to deposit Rs 100 crore for neutralising the chemicals.
The UCC pesticide plant was ordered closed since the 1984 gas leak disaster which killed several thousand people and injured half a million.
Posted by bhola at 01:46 PM | Comments (0)
July 13, 2005
Central and State governments suspect "waste removal" case was filed by Dow stooge
The recent "clean up Union Carbide's Bhopal factory" petition filed out of the blue in the Madhya Pradesh High Court was a move masterminded by Dow itself, say Bhopal survivors, and the governments of India and Madhya Pradesh agree.
The High Court's latest order states: It is brought to the notice of the Court that a few NGOs who have been agitating for securing the rights of the victims of Bhopal Gas Disaster for taking action against the persons responsible for the disaster, are apprehensive that the fourth respondent (DOW Chemicals Company) may escape liability if the entire remediation work is carried out by the Central/State Governments . . . The State/Central Governments also have a doubt that the petitioner may be a person set up by DOW Chemicals Company to file the PIL so as to avoid responsibility for the clean up task.
The petitioner here referred to is one Aloke Pratap Singh, who demanded that in the interest of public health, local government should begin an immediate clean-up of the Union Carbide factory, which has poisoned soil and groundwater and contaminated the drinking supplies of 20,000 people.
The petition was granted, and to the fury of survivors' groups, a hasty and shoddy "clean-up" duly began, with no regard either for the safety of workers employed to carry it out, or for local inhabitants many of whom were hospitalised by clouds of toxic dust raised by the incompetent contractor.
Survivors have maintained from the beginning that Singh's petition was a Dow-inspired spoiling tactic aimed at getting the corporation off the hook in New York where a class action suit filed by survivors against Union Carbide is now moving towards a climax.
If the New York case goes against them, Union Carbide and its 100% owners Dow Chemical face a potential bill of hundreds of millions of dollars for cleaning up their abandoned and polluted factory site.
The government of India, representing the government of Madhya Pradesh has already sent a letter to the New York court holding Dow/Union Carbide wholly responsible for the costs of remediating the polluted site, and stating that it has no objection should the court order Dow/Union Carbide to carry out the work.
Dow's ingenious and cynical idea is to transfer these liabilities to the local government by getting the High Court to order, as it has done, that a clean-up be immediately begun.
The ploy will not work, because the MP High Court, governments of India and Madhya Pradesh and survivors' groups are unanimous that whatever costs are incurred, even of a cursory containment of surface wastes, must be borne by Dow/Union Carbide.
It is also dawning on the Indian authorities that the much-needed clean-up of soil and groundwater should be carried out to the highest international standards, to the standards which would apply if the factory was for example in Buffalo instead of Bhopal. The expertise needed simply does not exist in India, which is another reason why Dow/Union Carbide, who poisoned the soil and water in the first place, who left behind thousands of tons of lethal pesticides, who know the chemicals involved because they manufactured them, are logically the only people who can be asked to clean them up.
Read the full High Court order here.
Posted by bhola at 02:26 PM | Comments (0)
Bowing to Dow
Twenty years after Union Carbide's (now Dow Chemicals) plant gassed 5,70,000 people, the Madhya Pradesh government plans to dismantle the plant that caused the world's worst industrial disaster, letting the MNC off the hook
By V K Shashikumar in Bhopal
Mohammed Ansar turned 22 this year. A victim of the gas tragedy, he hasn't moved for 22 years. He can't walk, and can't even lift his hands. "Death continues to elude him," says his mother, Kausar. Last week she fed him mangoes and forgot to wash his mouth. When she came to check him the next morning there were ants all over his mouth.
Miles away from Ban Ganga, where Ansar stays, in Arif Nagar and Shiv Shakti colony, women come out in droves assuming that we are pollution control board surveyors. "We don't have water," they all complain. Groundwater in areas around the Union Carbide Chemicals (UCC) factory site in Bhopal is highly contaminated and the state government has to date failed to provide drinking water to these protesters.
Twenty years after it happened, the Bhopal administration doesn't care anymore about the tragedy that sparked off far-reaching environment protection laws across the world.
Even as the disastrous effects of the world's worst industrial disaster continue to unfold, the Babulal Gaur government has embarked on a foolhardy plan to clean up tonnes of hazardous chemicals stockpiled in the factory. The public seems to be nonchalant. On June 16, the police cordoned off the plant, even posting armed constabulary along the broken perimeter walls of the factory. "I have instructions from the top to disallow anybody from entering the factory premises," Joint Collector SK Upadhyay, supervising the security arrangements, says.
Sources in the Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board (MPPCB) have revealed how the plan will be implemented through the year. As a first step, sacks of chemicals lying in the open have been shifted to a shed. Now, experts from the National Environment Engineering Research Institute, National Geophysical Research Institute and some other national institutions will visit the site. Each institution will give its recommendations on final remediation measures and be assigned specific clean-up tasks. "Once all the institutions submit their plans we will bunch them and that will constitute the clean-up protocol," says a senior MPPCB officer.
In the meantime the state government will float a tender for construction of a landfill in Dhar. The 25,000 tonnes of chemicals and drums of tar will be dumped in the proposed landfill at Dhar. "The containment of the chemicals at the factory site is temporary. We will dump it into the secure landfill and then begin the process of remediation of the factory site and surrounding areas. The restoration of the highly contaminated groundwater is difficult and we don't know how that will be done because it will be very expensive. And finally we will decommission the plant. But the government is yet to decide what to do at the site. Maybe a memorial for Bhopal gas tragedy victims might come up," says the MPPCB official.
The officials assert all precautions are being taken during containment, which has been contracted to Hyderabad-based Ramky Limited. The first phase of the three-phase clean-up plan has been hastened because of the Jabalpur High Court's order to complete the task by June 20.
Road to Recovery: A clinic attended by the victims
The Centre had showed its commitment to uphold the 'polluter pays principle' by granting consent to a US court to direct Dow Chemicals to clean up the mess it left behind. The state, by acting in haste, seems to be diluting Dow's accountability
"The proposed containment of above-ground toxic wastes in the factory site is an acceptable proposition but the state government must allow independent experts, community representatives and ngos to monitor the containment to ensure complete transparency," says Vinuta Gopal of Greenpeace India.
In June last year, the Centre had shown its commitment to uphold the internationally recognised 'polluter pays principle' by granting consent to a US court to direct Dow Chemicals to clean up the mess it left behind in the Bhopal plant. The state government, by acting in haste, seems to be diluting Dow's accountability. "If the US court gives judgement forcing Union Carbide/Dow Chemicals to clean up the site we will welcome it," says an MPPCB officer.
For years local and international environment advocacy groups have cautioned the government against any hasty remediation measures without public consultation on its proposed clean-up protocol. And yet when the government embarked on the first phase of the plan, environment activists found themselves barred from the factory site. "The government's plans came out in the open when unprotected workers were sent into the factory site in the first week of June by the state government to move sacks of chemicals lying in the open into a shed," says Satinath Sarangi of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action.
National and international environment groups vociferously protested and the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal even set up a kiosk outside the factory gate to demonstrate safe and proper hazardous waste containment protocol.
"We want the government to make the clean-up protocol public. It should demonstrate a clear mechanism to recover costs from UCC," says Vinuta Gopal.
Bhopal will be a test case of corporate accountability across the world and if Dow Chemicals is allowed to escape from its liabilities it will weaken the 'polluter pays principle' internationally.
This article is published under the fellowship programme of the National Foundation for India, July 09, 2005.
Posted by bhola at 02:19 PM | Comments (0)
Gas activists oppose toxic waste removal
From
Bhopal Gas survivors’ leader Abdul Jabbar on Monday vehemently opposed a move to remove toxic chemicals present in and around the abandoned Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) plant.
He said that it would only aid the UCC and its present owner Dow Chemicals from absolving themselves of responsibility for the 1984 disaster.
"Pollution from all hazardous chemicals and toxic silt should be prevented. However, removal of the chemicals will be tantamount to destroying key evidence against the MNC responsible for the disaster that killed several thousand people and affected half a million," Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangathan convenor Abdul Jabbar told reporters in Bhopal.
The sangathan would intervene in the case pending before the Madhya Pradesh High Court to prevent pollution around five square km area.
It was also against shifting the chemicals for neutralisation to Pithampur industrial area near Indore and to Gujarat. Mr Jabbar claimed that about 18,000 metric tonnes of chemicals and toxic silt were lying in and around the plant causing pollution in 25 localities where potable water was being supplied by tankers for the past decade.
Of this, 8,000 tonnes of chemicals were in the factory premises itself. The activist said that the ground reality of environmental pollution, and the consequent health hazard, was not being presented before the Supreme Court and the High Court.
The US Appellant Court, which was also hearing a petition for cleaning up the Bhopal site, was likely to deliver its judgement very soon and was most likely to impose a penalty of ten billion dollars.
The UCC plant, from where several tonnes of methyl isocyanate leaked on December 2 and 3, 1984, was handed over to the Madhya Pradesh Industries Department on July 19, 1998.
Following the High Court orders, only repackaging of chemicals — stored in a godown near the factory — was being done, the activist clarified.
According to Mr Jabbar, the chemicals lying around the factory and causing air, water and soil pollution, included methylene chloride, chloroform, chlorobenzyl chloride, carbaryl, phosgene, naphthalene and sevin tar.
Posted by bhola at 11:02 AM | Comments (0)
July 08, 2005
Voices from inside the Bhopal Memorial Trust Hospital
As the strike is temporarily stayed pending a meeting of the hospital's trustees, hospital staff have been talking about what goes on behind the scenes.
'This building may look beautiful and impressive from the outside, but inside it feels like a cage or prison.' - Nurse on strike.
'Not a single member of the eleven trustees on the Board are gas-affected. They could not care less how patients are treated.' - Junior doctor on strike.
Bhopal gas survivors have been coming out of BMHT for years with horror stories of the treatment they have received inside. But for the first time, we are getting confirmation of those stories from employees themselves, who are speaking out on the corruption and the abuse of lower-level employees and patients. We spoke to various senior and junior residents, nurses and technicians, and recorded these testimonials.
Discrimination against gas-victims is institutionalised within BMHT.
The hospital was built by order of the Supreme Court for the benefit of gas-victims, but the management appears more interested in private patients, and appears to treat the gas-affected as a nuisance to be suffered until they can take the hospital completely private.
- According to junior doctors and nurses, when they first register, gas-affected patients are given a code number starting with '1' while private patients are given a code number starting with '9'. From then on, no matter where they go in the hospital, patients are treated differently according to their code number.
- Nurses said that they receive direct orders from their superiors to prioritise private patients and that they get rebuked and punished if they do not.
- Private patients are guaranteed to receive medical reports signed by senior doctors within 24 hours, while gas-affected patients have to wait for days and even months for reports and test results. For MRI reports for example, private patients receive results in 24 hrs while gas-affected patients have to wait for 5-6 months.
- Employees receive absolutely no training or information about the gas tragedy or how specifically to treat people who were affected by gas.
- Although the hospital was built in order to care for gas-affected patients, the number of in-patient and out-patient private patients have been increasing steadily year by year. For example, the percentage of private patients receiving outpatient services in 2001 was 4.5% while in 2004 it was 11.1%. In the last 2 years alone, the number of private patients has gone up by 30%.
The Board of Trustees and Management are corrupt.
Various large sums of money remain totally unaccounted for by either the Board of Trustees or Management (who have yet to publicly release any financial statements).
- BMHT received 6.5 crores in cash last year from individual private patients, with no record of where this money went.
- BMHT has also been treating employees of Air India, Indian Airlines, Gas Authority India Limited, Steel Authority India Limited as well as patients from the Chief Minister Relief Fund (fund to treat any special guest of the Chief Minister) on credit, with no record of how this money has been collected or used.
- One junior doctor described the excessive number of expensive and rarely-used machines being bought by management – that are sitting around unused without any technicians to run them. The doctor suspects that management is receiving some kind of commission from the medical equipment companies from which they are purchasing the machines.
- There is also a large amount of interest being collected from the original Trust Fund, but again, there is no information as to where that money is going or how it has been spent.
- While the board and management complain of shortages of money to adequately fund and staff the hospital, we have collected numerous accounts of the lavish lifestyle of management/board being funded by BMHT money, including expensive cars, pool/workout room/clubhouse reserved for senior staff/management only, international flights for board meetings, etc.
There are severe shortages of staff at BMHT
There is a severe shortage of qualified staff at BMHT. While the number of patients have increased drastically over the last few years, the number of staff has been slashed, resulting in extremely poor care for gas-affected patients.
- In 2000, there were 198 nurses, 63 senior residents and 21 junior residents; and in 2004, there were 98 nurses, 25 senior residents and 28 junior residents. During the same time period, the number of admitted patients increased 11 times.
- The shortage of senior doctors has been especially critical – for example, in the Cardiology Ward, there is not a single senior doctor. But instead of hiring and paying for more experts and senior residents, junior residents (whose number has gone up slightly) have to take on more and more burden of care that they are not qualified for. In day-to-day practice, this has resulted in poor care and fatalities for gas-affected patients. With the expert doctors not available, less qualified residents are forced to treat and operate upon patients without proper knowledge or practice, which in effect has resulted in medical experimentation upon gas-affected patients. It also results in patients being constantly referred outside the hospital because of the lack of special expertise inside.
- To illustrate the above point, a junior doctor described a situation 3 weeks ago where a patient who was admitted for gastro-surgery started complaining of chest pain. Because there was no consultant/doctor available in the Cardiology ward, a junior doctor in gastro-surgery examined the patient and failed to find the source of the problem. As a result, the patient died of heart failure shortly thereafter.
- BMHT claims to have the philosophy of one nurse to one patient, but reality is starkly different. The ICU itself has a ratio of only 1 nurse to 3-6 patients, and nurses have described other wards where there is only 1 nurse for 30 patients. Nurses have told us that they often have to abandon critical gas-affected patients in their ward because they are told by their superiors to cover other areas of the hospital or attend to private patients.
- Even in the face of such shortages, the management has made no move to attract qualified doctors with good salaries and benefits. Instead, they have been driving people out by slashing salaries, benefits, and creating a miserable work enivoronment.
BMHT fosters inhumane working conditions
- Employees receive inadequate pay:
Employees of all job descriptions complained of low pay that has either been reduced or kept the same since 1998. Although management has been claiming that nurses are paid 5,000 Rs./month, nurses we spoke to said they only receive 2,800 Rs. Junior residents are receiving 8-10,000 Rs., which is half the amount they would receive at comparable institutions in India.
- Employees are overworked without compensation:
Time and time again, employees complained of being forced to work extra hours and shifts without receiving pay or days off. One nurse we spoke to said she works at least 2 unpaid hours extra every day, and at least 2 extra unpaid shifts every week. Other employees including doctors, pharmacists, etc have complained of routinely working 12 hour shifts (instead of 8 hrs) and working 7 days a week when there is no one to cover their position on days off.
- Appropriate medical leave not given:
Employees also complained of not receiving proper medical care or sick leave as promised to them in their contracts. When sick, employees must be examined by the Chief Medical Officer, and no matter what the illness – viral fever, malaria, etc – everyone receives only one day off. But by the time the sick employee completes the examination and then goes through 4-5 levels of bureaucracy to get sick leave papers signed, most of their day off is used up without rest or recovery. Other times, supervisors outright refuse to let their employees leave, threatening termination. For example, one nurse developed a tooth infection that she had to treat with her own money after her supervisor refused to let her get immediate dental care after chipping a tooth at work. Another nurse complained that she was not given maternity leave and that she was working shifts right up to the moment of her delivery. When employees take more than one day for sick leave, pay is usually docked.
- Vacation promised but not given:
All employees are promised paid days off in their contracts, but in reality, when they take time off, pay is routinely docked and supervisors threaten to fire them.
- Employees complain of intimidation, harassment and emotional abuse from supervisors:
Nurses complained bitterly about their superiors, recounting stories of many colleagues who routinely leave work crying because of the abuse they receive at work. The employees to whom we spoke refused to repeat in public the swear-words that their supervisors shout at them. Employees are routinely threatened with the sack, and are accused of making up illnesses and excuses to get out of work. If supplies are missing or equipment malfunctioning, employees are often asked to pay for replacements/repairs out of their own pocket.
4th class workers sign blank contracts:
4th Class workers, including 90 security guards, 150 attendants and 90 cleaners are contract workers who receive no benefits, no share of Provident Fund (retirement plan), and are not even entitled to medical treatment in the hospital. They literally sign blank contracts upon joining the BMHT staff, and are entirely at the mercy of their supervisors regarding work conditions.
Posted by bhola at 08:44 AM | Comments (0)
July 05, 2005
Three Bhopal patients die
BHOPAL, July 4. from The Statesman
Three patients asked to leave when the Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre was locked out on the night of 2 July died yesterday. The Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangathan has decided to file a special leave petition before the Supreme Court to ensure that the hospital, where doctors have been on strike for a wage hike, is not closed down.
No money for doctors, but management buy themselves smart cars
The hospital, set up in 2000 with a corpus of Rs 388 crore after a 1991 Supreme Court order, discharged all patients on Saturday as the doctors remained adamant. The 260-bed BHMRC admits up to 30 patients and provides services to more than 130 people daily.
Survivors fear the hospital management and trustees have close links to Union Carbide
When it closed, a few patients were shifted to Kamla Nehru Hospital while some others looked for private facilities. The chief minister, Mr Babulal Gaur, told The Statesman: "Since the hospital is under direct supervision of the Supreme Court, the government cannot interfere in its functioning."
Asked if the government can broker a truce, he said: "Unless we get a written complaint, we can’t do much." He said he would get his chief secretary to look into the matter.
Survivors organisations demonstrate solidarity with the striking doctors
Posted by bhola at 03:51 AM | Comments (0)
July 04, 2005
Bhopal Memorial Hospital Trust shuts down
July 2, 2005
On Saturday, management decided to shut down Bhopal Memorial Hospital & Research Center situated in Karond. This decision is in response to the 3 day strike by junior doctors and other staff members. The decision of the trust will impact more than 5,00,000 gas victims who received free treatment from the hospital.
With the help of police, the management of the trust discharged all the admitted patients in the evening. Police force was present within the premises of the hospital till night. The management has not taken any decision regarding the functioning of 8 mini units of BMHRC.
The 350 bed hospital goes through at least 30-35 operations, and 350-400 outpatients visit the hospital on a daily basis. The hospital has special facilities for Bypass surgery, Engiography, Cardiology Cardiac Thoracic Surgery, Nephrology Medicine, Cancer Surgery, Pulmonay medicine, Gastrology, Neurosurgery, Mental Health and Eye.
The working trustee of the trust Aziz Ahmed Siddiqui stated ignoring the interest of the gas victims a few doctors and employees of the hospital are on strike. The management has had discussion with the doctors and other employees, but they are intransigent over payment to central government salaries. The interest on the corpus fund is what is used for payment of salaries to employees and for taking care of patients. The trust has suffered losses of Crores of rupees because this year there has been excess expenditure on treatment of gas victims and on employees. Mr. Siddiqui claims that the hospital pays more salaries than any other hospital in Bhopal and it is treating gas victims free of cost. He said that the strike was illegal because before going on strike the doctors and employees gave no notice. The striking staff members are asking for a raise in their salaries, and it is not possible for trust to pay such high salaries because trust doesn't have any other income.
Strike will continue
The spokesperson of Resident Doctors Union, Mr Salim Nayak said that managment has put up a notice in the hospital informing all employees that they have to vacate the campus by the evening of 4-July. He said that the employees will not bow before the dictatorship of the management. The striking doctors ran a parallel OPD and treated patients as well as participated in a sit-in. Meanwhile convener Bhopal Gas Peedith Mahila Udyog Sangathan, Mr. Abdul Jabbar has said that the decision to close down the hospital is shameful. The Sangathan will file a special writ petition in the Supreme Court of India on July 4-2005.
Bhopal Memorial Closed, Patients asked to leave. Management tells doctors and employees to vacate the campus.
The management of Bhopal Memorial Hospital that was built for treatment of 575,000 survivors of the disaster decided to close down the hospital this evening. This decision was taken in the context of the 3 day old strike of the doctors and employees. The hospital management asked 123 patients admitted to the hospital, to leave. Police men were present when patients were told to go. Doctors and employees residing within the campus have been asked to vacate the campus by July 4
Notice posted on the hospital
2nd July 2005
Consequent upon failure of talks between the management and employees on strike on account of their unreasonable demands, the management is left with no alternative but to reluctantly close Bhopal Memorial Hospital Trust and Research Center at Karond for the time being.
The employees on strike are therefore given two days time to vacate the hospital premises by 4th July 2005 before 5:00 pm.
The management efforts to persuade the employees to work in the larger interest of the gas victims and to allow time for the management to evaluate their demands have failed because of the unrelenting attitude of the employees on strike. This unpleasant and unfortunate decision has been forced by the management.
Director General
BMHRC
Posted by bhola at 09:58 AM | Comments (0)
Bhopal Memorial Hospital doctors call hunger strike
June 30, 2004
Due to problems of under staffing at Bhopal Memorial Hospital & Research Center and problems of low salary faced by the junior
doctors have demanded the administration to call for a trustees
meeting within a week to meet their demands. A 48 hour ultimatum has
been given by Junior doctors to the administration regarding fixing
of the board of trustees meeting. During this time if the date of the
trust meeting is not fixed then junior doctors and others will go on
a indefinite hunger strike.
On June 28th, junior doctors had a meeting with administration on
the hospital campus. Junior Doctor's president, Doctor Arvind Namdev
said that the number of patients have been on a rise and in
comparison the number of doctors, nursing staff, paramedical
staff is severely understaffed. The patients faces the brunt of the
problem due to lack of doctors and other staff. "Despite the strike,
the administration is not taking our demands seriously, "said Doctor
Namdev. The administration still has not informed the junior doctors
regarding the date of the trust meeting. The issue of under staffing
and regularized pay has been presented at the earlier board of
trustees meeting, but until today trust has failed to take any
decision on any of the matters cornering this issue.
If the administration doesn't inform the junior doctors regarding the
date of the trust meeting then junior doctors, nursing and
paramedical staff will go on a strike. No staff including the doctors
will work inside the hospital. The regular outpatient clinic will
commence outside the gates of the hospital in which seriously ill
patients will be given treatment.
Main Demands
The problem of staffing should be improved immediately
Pay Scale should be improved
Promotion should be on the basis of seniority
Stats on Out patient clinic
Type Year 2000 Year 2004
Outpatient 27,598 118,741
Inpatient 763 8472
Operation 850 2220
X-ray 3165 20,966
Information on Doctors and Nursing Staff
Type Year 2000 Year 2004
Junior Doctors 63 28
Nursing Staff 193 98
Posted by bhola at 09:57 AM | Comments (0)
Survivors of the world's worst industrial disaster remain at the mercy of a corrupt government and an impotent judicial system
By DINESH C SHARMA in the Bangkok Post
Bhopal : The infamous Union Carbide gas tragedy keeps haunting the central Indian city of Bhopal. The issue this time is the cleaning up of toxic chemical stockpiles decaying in the closed pesticide-making plant for the past 21 years. Normally this should have brought some cheer to survivors, but it has not.
All these years, residues of deadly chemicals at the factory have percolated into the soil as well as groundwater, polluting them a great deal. Chemical residues have been found in groundwater to a depth of 500 feet at some spots near the factory.
An estimated 20,000 people in nearby settlements have been drinking contaminated water. Chemicals have entered the food chain and traces of pesticide have been found in human breast milk.
Scientifically speaking, a remediation plan should cover treatment of chemical stockpiles, buildings and other structures in the factory as well as treatment of contaminated soil including solar evaporation ponds located outside the factory and groundwater.
This process could take several years and cost billions of dollars.
The continuation of this toxic legacy is a direct result of governmental inaction. The central or state governments never asked Union Carbide to decontaminate soil and remediate the site, despite persistent demands from survivor organisations.
In March 2004, while hearing a petition from survivors, an appeals court in the United States ruled that it could consider remediation if the request comes from the Indian or Madhya Pradesh government.
Despite this opportunity, they did not act. It was only after a 19-day hunger strike by activists that the Indian government relented and sent a letter to the US court in June 2004, saying that pursuant to the polluter pays principle recognised by both the US and India, Union Carbide should bear all the financial burden and cost for the purpose of environmental cleanup and remediation.
The Union of India and the state government of Madhya Pradesh shall not bear any financial burden for this purpose.
While the liability case was still being heard in the US, the Madhya Pradesh High Court allowed a petition asking the state government to clean up the site. It fixed June 2005 as the deadline for the first stage of the cleanup.
Curiously, the government did not tell the court that if it cleaned up, it would vitiate the liability proceedings in the US court.
On the other hand, it started the process in right earnest and finished the first stage of cleaning up and even paid for it.
This action has thrown the polluter pays principle to the wind and sent clear signals to multinational corporations pollute and escape, the taxpayer will pay up for your mess. Though the government says it will extract the cost of cleaning up from Dow Chemicals, the present owners of Union Carbide, the fact is that the High Court issued the cleanup order after hearing Dow's refusal to bear any liability or be dragged into the case.
Dow Chemicals, with which Union Carbide merged in 2000, has maintained it has no liability for remediation of the site and decommissioning of the Bhopal plant, though it did pay asbestos exposure claims against Union Carbide dating back to 1972.
The cleanup begun by Madhya Pradesh government will further strengthen Dow's position on Bhopal.
The present cleanup will make India's central and state governments appear not only inconsistent, but ridiculous in the eyes of the US court and others who have been following this case as an important precedent for the future, notes H Rajan Sharma, lead counsel for gas victims in US federal class action against Union Carbide.
Within India also, the hasty cleanup process has exposed double standards adopted by Indian authorities on the polluter pays principle.
In May 2003, Hindustan Lever was forced to ship to the United States 290 tonnes of mercury waste from its closed thermometer factory in India. Now it is being asked to pay for remediation of mercury-contaminated soil outside the factory as well. Several Indian companies have been served notices to pay remediation costs.
Surprisingly, the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee on hazardous waste _ which issued some of these notices _ agreed to the Bhopal cleanup without insisting on polluter pays or realising the implications on pending cases of liability against Union Carbide.
Legal aspects apart, the way the operation was carried out last week has raised the hackles of gas victims.
Satinath Sarangi of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action, said several hundred people have been affected due to the toxic dust that flew due to crude and unsafe methods deployed in cleaning up.
MIC-exposed people were the worst hit because they are hypersensitive to any new chemical exposure, he said. The alacrity with which the state pollution control board has acted smacks of a clear design to protect Dow Chemicals, said Rashida Bi, another survivor-activist.
All these years, the Bhopal gas tragedy has come to symbolise the total lack of political will, suppression of information, denial of basic human rights and a government-corporate nexus to protect business interests.
The first betrayal was the Indian government's nod for an inadequate compensation package, then the delay in disbursing the money (victims are getting the compensation now).
Medical research data has been suppressed. The first official report was published only last year. Long-term medical follow up has been sloppy _ this year the medical facilities meant for gas victims have been thrown open to the general public.
Survivors are forced to drink contaminated water as the government has failed to provide them safe supplies.
Successive governments have never pursued court orders to extradite former Union Carbide chief, Warren Anderson.
On top of all this, the government continues to do business with Dow Chemicals and powerful people are shielding it.
Recently a spokesperson for the ruling party, an eminent lawyer, appeared in the court to defend Dow.
As Nityanand Jayaraman, a member of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, puts it, survivors of the world's worst industrial disaster remain at the mercy of a corrupt government and an impotent judicial system.
Posted by bhola at 09:51 AM | Comments (0)