BHOPAL: A delegation of Bhopal gas victims met the Union minister for health, chemical and fetiliser Mansukh Mandaviya to apprise him of their grievances about poor medical rehabilitation.
The survivors of the Bhopal gas disaster gathered outside Bhopal Memorial Hospital & Research Centre (BMHRC) to meet the Union minister. The delegation handed over a memorandum to the minister urging him immediate action on their five crucial demands.
The gas victims sought action on appropriate compensation to survivors of gas disaster, clean-up of toxic waste, medical care of gas victims, research on impact of MIC leakage on the people and environment of Bhopal, end to mismanagement of BMHRC & curbing corruption vis-a-vis utilisation of funds meant to provide relief & rehabilitation to gas victims.
A spokesperson for the delegation said the minister assured that BMHRC will be returned to its original glory and a medical college will be opened in the hospital. He also said that National Institute for Research on Environmental Health (NIREH) will be asked to carry out appropriate medical research on Bhopal gas victims and their children.
She further said that in December 2010, GoI had filed a curative petition in the Supreme Court seeking additional compensation from Union Carbide Corporation-USA and its present owner Dow Chemical Company, USA. On several occasions, “we have repeatedly stated that the figures of deaths and injuries caused as a result of the disaster mentioned in this curative petition are neither correct nor scientific and need to be corrected.”
In 2014 & 2015, the ministry of chemicals also promised to correct these figures, but it has not been done yet. In 2018, the SC declared the groundwater of 42 communities situated around the Union Carbide factory to be contaminated and unfit for drinking. Recent investigations revealed that the groundwater of additional 29 communities have been found to be contaminated with persistent organic pollutants (POPs).
The delegation urged the minister to invite the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) who have offered to undertake the crucial job of comprehensive scientific assessment of chemical contaminants so that appropriate cost of clean-up and remediation can be sought from Union Carbide & its owner Dow Chemical, USA under the principle of "Polluter Pays".
They further said that due to administrative mismanagement in the last 12 years, BMHRC is proving to be a complete failure in providing proper treatment to Bhopal gas victims. Most crucial departments like nephrology, oncology gastric surgery, neurology are shut and there are no doctors. They demanded merging of BMHRC with AIIMS, Bhopal.
In October 2010, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) set up its 31st institute, National Institute for Research in Environmental Health (NIREH) in Bhopal to study long-term damage to the health of those exposed to the toxic gases and contaminated ground water. In the last 12 years no work has been done by the institute for the welfare of gas victims. In 2018, a study carried out by NIREH showed that birth defects in children being born to the gas exposed parents were 7 times higher compared to the unexposed population, but the report was never published. The delegation demanded a scientific review of the last 12 years of this Institute.
