Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmachari Sangh
Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha
Bhopal Group for Information and Action
Bhopal Ki Aawaaz
March 3, 2007
Press Statement
Over 100 survivors of the December 1984 Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal staged a die-in in front of the residence of Chief Minister
Shivraj Singh Chouhan to draw his attention to the ongoing dharna by four survivors’ organizations demanding health care and rehabilitation from the state government.
The survivors, most of them women, lay on the road right opposite the entrance to the Chief Minister’s residence covering themselves with white sheets. Rashida Bee, leader of one of the organisations, said that the Madhya Pradesh government’s criminal indifference towards the plight of the people poisoned by Union Carbide was prolonging the suffering of the victims and causing untimely deaths. She hoped that the die-in would serve as a stark reminder to the Chief Minister regarding the state government’s duties towards victims of American multinational Union Carbide.
Syed M Irfan, President of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush
Sangharsh Morcha said that the state government was ignoring the
decisions of the Coordination Committee on Bhopal set up by the Prime Minister last year for relief and rehabilitation of Bhopal victims. He said that the state government was also guilty of not following the directions of the Supreme Court regarding supply of safe water to the communities next to the abandoned Union Carbide factory that are affected by ground water contamination.
The organizations also announced a “Black Holi” tomorrow as a mark of condemnation of the state government’s apathy. They have urged survivors of the disaster to play Holi with black colour keeping in mind that a group of survivors and their supporters will begin their indefinite fast from March 5. Rashida Bee who has lost six family members to cancer and is herself undergoing treatment for exposure related illnesses said that she and her fellow activists were prepared to die to assert the right to life of the victims of Union Carbide.
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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