PTI – HINDUSTAN TIMES
New Delhi, April 6, 2006
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL today asked the Government to take immediate steps to ensure regular supply of safe water for the Bhopal gas tragedy victims and cleaning up of the factory site to check further deterioration of ground water and environment.
In an open letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the rights watchdog Secretary General Irene Khan also urged setting up of a probe into the alleged police assault on protestors who were demonstrating in front of Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Ramvilas Paswan’s office here.
Hundreds of survivors were staging demonstration from March 27 here demanding rehabilitation, livelihood and environmental remediation for victims fighting chronic ailments for the past 21 years. Khan said the PM should also “heed to the request of survivors, many of them who have walked 800 km to New Delhi, for a meeting with you.”
Till date, she said, no one has been held responsible for the gas leak and its disastrous consequences — 22,000 killed to date and more than one lakh suffer from chronic ailments — that continue to affect people and the environment. The contaminated plant site has not been cleaned up and MP Government has failed to act on the SC order to clean up the premises and provide safe water for the victims, Khan said.
Concerned over the March 28 detention of several activists, Amnesty asked the Government to constitute ‘a prompt, impartial and transparent investigation’ to examine whether the use of force by police was in consistent with law.

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