Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmachari Sangh
Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha
Bhopal Group for Information and Action
Bhopal ki Aawaaz
June 20, 2005, PRESS STATEMENT
Four organizations working among the survivors of the December 1984 Union Carbide disaster will present their complaints before the Chairman of the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee on Hazardous Waste Management, who has agreed to visit Bhopal to gather first hand information on the work of safe keeping of chemicals within the Carbide factory premises. The leaders of the organizations are confident that they will be able to demonstrate to the Chairman that the work inside the Carbide factory was in clear violation of the Hazardous Waste Management Rules, 1989 and of established scientific norms.
Meanwhile, over 140 residents of Blue Moon Colony had to take treatment at the Jawaharlal Nehru Hospital for symptoms ranging from vomiting, burning in eyes, chest pain, dizziness, stomach pain, spasms and palpitations. People in Atal-Ayub Nagar and New Arif Nagar were also badly affected.
Leaders of the organizations who were patrolling around the Union Carbide factory today since morning stopped the work of borewell sinking at two locations in Atal Ayub Nagar both within 100 feet of the factory wall. A handpump next to one of the proposed borewells already carries an official warning regarding the poisonous nature of its water.
The leaders said that the sinking of borewells next to the factory and the illegal and unscientific work of safe keeping of chemical waste inside the Carbide factory was part of state government’s design to downplay the hazards of the chemical waste and the problem of ground water contamination. These acts, they assert, are aimed at helping the Dow Chemical Company, current owner of the absconding Union Carbide Corporation, escape its liabilities for the clean-up of both the factory premises and the groundwater and soil near the factory.
Commenting on the Minister of Gas Relief’s statement of yesterday that the government will make Dow pay for the clean-up, Rashida Bee, President of Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh, said that the Minister either does not understand the legal hurdles in extracting money from Dow, USA since it is outside the jurisdiction of the Indian courts or he is deliberately misleading people. “He is either stupid or corrupt or both”, she said. Either way, the groups allege, he will end up taking the money from the Indian taxpayer.
Rashida Bi, Champa Devi Shukla
Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmachari Sangh
+91 9303132298
Syed M Irfan,
Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha
+91 9329026319
Shahid Noor
Bhopal ki Aawaaz
+91 9303122784
Satinath Sarangi
Bhopal Group for Information and Action
Contact :
House No. 12, Gali No. 2, Near Naseer Masjid, Bag Umrao Dulha, Bhopal 462 010
Please keep checking www.bhopal.net for latest information and photographs.
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