AS 35 YEAR NOORJEHAN LIES IN HOSPITAL WITH ACUTE RESPIRATORY DISTRESS, THE POLITICIAN CHARGED WITH HER WELFARE REPEATS BLAND ASSURANCES TO AN INCREDULOUS PRESS CORPS

At 9.10 this morning the increasingly out-of-touch politician in charge of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation Department, Mr Uma Shankar Gupta visited the Carbide factory accompanied by Alok Pratap Singh, a man widely regarded by survivors as a Dow stooge.

In the picture above Gupta is talking to the media, Alok Pratap stands on his right in a light blue shirt.
Gupta told an incredulous gathering of reporters that there was nothing to worry about. The BBC’s Faisal Mohammed Ali asked him why in that case he was not allowing survivors’ organisations to come and see the work when he had brought along Aloke Pratap Singh. Gupta said it was because Aloke had moved the clean-up petition in the Jabalpur high court.
Meanwhile Aloke Pratap began yelling at Faisal that he was asking planted questions. At this the entire group of media people raised hell and Singh and Gupta were forced to apologise. It is the latest in a series of bungled media performances which demonstrate only that Uma Shankar Gupta is unfit to be in charge of a bucket of cowdung, much less the welfare of the thrice-afflicted people of this part of Bhopal.

As the picture above shows, the government’s appointed contractor is still endangering workers by exposing them to dangerous chemicals with no protective clothing. This is a criminal offence under the Indian Penal Code, as has been pointed out both to the contractor and his political masters.
Meanwhile the contractor’s manager in charge of the clean-up at the demand of survivors put in writing the dangers an improperly conducted operation poses to nearby communities.

Women from surrounding communities entered the factory yesterday to protest against the poison clouds that had enveloped their homes. Read the report on our ACTIONS blog.
Caught between a criminally irresponsible corporation which created the mess and refuses to clean it up, and criminally negligent politicians who have done the minumum for the benefit of the community, who can the victims of Union Carbide turn to?
Only you. Please make your feelings known in the strongest possible way. Scroll down to the next item to see what you can do.

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