Bhopal Gas Tragedy victims red flag govt’s ‘temporary injuries’ admission in curative petition in SC

Bhopal(Madhya Pradesh): Bhopal Gas Disaster victims have questioned the admission of the Union government in a curative petition in SC that states that 5.74 lakh are temporary injuries. The gas survivors said even after 37 years of the disaster the people are still undergoing treatment at hospitals and this is enough to prove that injuries the victims have suffered are permanent and not temporary as stated by the Centre.

Jai Prakash of Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangathan, while interacting with media on Friday, said, “In the curative petition the Union government has admitted that 5.74 lakh are temporary injuries. But even after 37 years, the gas victims are still going to hospitals for treatment, it shows that injuries are permanent and the government should fix compensation on the basis of permanent injuries.”

Besides, the Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre(BMHRC) has records of around 4.50 lakh gas victims and there should be computerized data of all these patients, said Jai Prakash.

The organizations fighting for the cause of the Bhopal gas victims are demanding the governments—Central as well as State – to rectify the facts in a curative petition in the Supreme Court.

In the last 11 years since the petition was submitted, no government so far has submitted a single additional argument to protect the legal rights of half a million Bhopal gas tragedy survivors, said the gas victims. The government must show that it does in fact care about half a million of its most vulnerable citizens, they added.

Through the curative plea in 2010, the government had sought a reconsideration of the May 1989 judgment and a 1991 order of the Supreme Court, arguing that the 1989 settlement was grossly inadequate.