Survivors to protest against GoM plan

Condemning the recommendations,all seven organisations said the GoM pretended to offer relief and rehabilitation but details revealed that besides compensation,issues like rehabilitation and corporate liability were totally ignored.

“The recommendations demonstrate more concern for the welfare of American corporations than survivors,” Abdul Jabbar of Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangathan said. He alleged that the GoM’s recommendations were based on a flawed medical classification that itself was designed to deny benefits to more victims.

The Supreme Court had held that death compensation awarded should be between Rs one lakh and Rs five lakh and between Rs 20,000 to four lakh for those affected. But the classification of injuries was worked out in such way that more than 95 per cent only received Rs 25,000 each as the first instalment.

“When the GoM had 10 days to deliberate,why did it rush through the recommendations without consulting the victims or the organisations working for them?” Jabbar asked.

The activists were also critical of MP’s Minister for Gas Tragedy (Relief and Rehabilitation) Babulal Gaur.

Satinath Sarangi of Bhopal Group for Information and Action alleged that several bodies were dumped on the first night of the tragedy in jungles and there was no record of these disposals. Also,the government never bothered to study the long-term impact of the gas leak,he said,calling the recommendations a ‘conspiracy’. He said letting Dow off the hook was as bad was letting Anderson flee the country. He said the clean-up of the site was the legal responsibility of Dow Chemicals.

The organisations alleged that the GoM’s recommendations were designed to please the US-India CEO Forum ahead of its meeting in Washington.