Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmachari Sangh
Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha
Bhopal Group for Information & Action
Bhopal Ki Aawaaz
February 22, 2007
PRESS STATEMENT
More than 100 women survivors of the December 1984 Union Carbide disaster produced bags from old newspapers as part of their activities on the third day of the dharna led by four local organisations. They distributed the paper bags among passers gather support for their ongoing “Right to Life” campaign and to discourage use of polythene bags. According to leaders of the organisations making of paper bags at the dharna site was an expression of the resolve of the Bhopal survivors to obtain gainful employment.
The organisations have yet to receive any reply to the charter of demands that they gave to the Chief Minister on February 13, 2007. Many of these demands are for implementation of decisions taken by the Coordination Committee on Bhopal that was set up by the Prime Minister last year for addressing issues of relief and rehabilitation of Bhopal victims. The Prime Minister’s decision came after a 800 kilometer march on foot from Bhopal to New Delhi in February last year followed by dharna and hunger strike by the organisations.
The organisations hold the Madhya Pradesh government responsible for the continued suffering of the survivors of the disaster. They said that the negligent attitude of the state government is obvious in the allocation of responsibilities to the officials in the Ministry of Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation. The Minister, the Principal Secretary and the Director all have additional ministries and departments to handle and the posts of secretary and deputy secretary have remained vacant for the last several years.
According to the organisations, more than 100,000 survivors of the disaster continue today to suffer from illnesses caused by damage to their lungs, brain, reproductive and immune systems and other organs. The Centre for Rehabilitation Studies of the state government has confirmed the increased incidence among the 25,000 people exposed to ground water contamination of a range of respiratory, gastrointestinal and skin diseases. More than 50,000 thousand survivors have lost their livelihoods due to the disaster and there are thousands of starving families among the gas affected.
Tomorrow the protestors will take out a torchlight procession in the evening to draw the attention of the Chief Minister to the ongoing “Right to Life” campaign.
Rashida Bi, Champa Devi Shukla
Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmachari Sangh
94256 88215
Syed M Irfan,
Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha
93290 26319
Shahid Noor
Bhopal ki Aawaaz
98261 82226
Satinath Sarangi, Rachna Dhingra
Bhopal Group for Information and Action
98261 67369
Contact : House No. 60, Near Cold Storage, Union Carbide Road, Chhola, Bhopal
Please visit www.bhopal.net for more information on the campaign for justice in Bhopal

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