Bhopal's toxic reality - 26 years and still hurting

26 th Anniversary of Bhopal Gas Tragedy

Bhopal: Another year, another
anniversary, another round of protests.
But the thousands of survivors of the
world's worst industrial disaster are
unwilling to give up the fight for justice,
26 years after lethal gas leaked out of the
Union Carbide plant here killing 3,000
instantly and an estimated 25,000 since.

On that night of Dec 2-3, 1984, 40

tonnes of methyl isocyanate gas seeped
out from the now defunct Union Carbide
plant, catching people in their sleep. It
killed people instantly, and slowly over
the years. It also affected 100,000 people
that night and estimates are than 500,000
still continue to suffer in myriad ways.

Two-and-a-half decades later, no concrete steps have been taken to remove

the tonnes of toxic waste that still lie inside the Union Carbide factory,
continuing to pollute and cause untold damage. Neurological, hormonal
and mental health problems continue as do the economic hardships of not
being able to work. Survivors still face the problem of deformed children
being born.

And the question since has remained the same -- will justice ever be
served?

Torchlight vigils, demonstrations and street plays, as every year this

anniversary will again see the Bhopal gas victims rally for justice.

'The decision of the central government to deny additional compensation to

more than 90 percent of the people officially acknowledged to have been
exposed to Union Carbide's toxic gases is grave injustice to the survivors
who have received a paltry sum of Rs.25,000 for lifelong injuries,' said
Rasheeda Bee, a survivor who runs the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila
Stationary Karamchari Sangh. 'We also condemn the absence of any
decision on registration of exposure related death claims after 1997, when
such registration was arbitrarily stopped,' she added.
For Rashida Bee and the others who still live with the scars of that night 26
years ago, the June 7 verdict by a court here holding the eight accused
guilty only of criminal negligence and sentencing them to two years
imprisonment is a mockery of justice.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs.100,000 on the eight, including

Keshub Mahindra, who then headed the Union Carbide India Ltd (UCIL).

And Warren Anderson, former chairman of Union Carbide Corp, the

American parent company, continues to abscond and is in the US.

Satinath Sarangi of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action, an NGO
representing the survivors, had described the verdict as a disaster. 'They've
made it look like a traffic accident,' Sarangi said.

The visit of US President Barack Obama in November this year has added
to anger here. The extradition of Warren Anderson and the industrial
disaster and its aftermath was not even mentioned, point out activists here.

After all, it was Obama and his ministers who took stern action against
British Petroleum for contaminating the environment of the Gulf of
Mexico, they said.

'Only 11 people got killed; there was environmental damage and they
created a $20 billion fund for clean up and compensation. But in the case
of the Bhopal gas tragedy, the same US government has an indifferent
attitude,' Rachna Dingra of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action
(BGIA) told IANS. With the union government making it clear they are not
going to raise the issue in US courts, it seems no one really cares for the
victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy.

'There is clearly a lack of political will. Both Union Carbide and Dow
Chemical continue to violate Indian laws and scoff at Indian courts and the
government appears to be helpless. If the central government were really
serious about extracting compensation from the American corporations it
would have joined the ongoing litigation on environmental damage in the
US Federal court,' said Sarangi.

It is time once again to remember the pain of Bhopal. Will their cries
this 26th anniversary be heard to any effect?