NGO asks Madhya Pradesh govt to take up compensation issue with Bhopal ministerial group

An NGO working for the Bhopal gas victims today asked the Madhya Pradesh government to take up the issue of inadequate compensation to the affected families during the September 28 meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) on the 1984 tragedy.

In a letter to gas relief and rehabilitation minister Babulal Gaur, the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangathan (BGPMUS) said the compensation of $470 million, accepted from Union Carbide in 1989, was "totally unjustified".

The compensation was taken for about 3,000 dead and 1.02 lakh injured, but it was actually distributed amongst 5,74,376 affected people, BGPMUS Convener Abdul Jabbar said.

The amount was disbursed several years after receiving it and the interest accrued was not distributed amongst the victims, he said.

The enhanced compensation (Rs1,500 crore) announced three months ago by the Centre covered only 4 per cent of the victims of the world's worst industrial disaster, he stated.

Jabbar said the persons who got minimum compensation of Rs25,000 have been found to be suffering from very serious health complications. Therefore, they all should get enhanced compensation, he said and requested Gaur to take up the matter
forcefully with the GoM and ensure justice to victims.

He said BGPMUS had sent letters to Union home minister P Chidambaram, who heads the GoM, seeking enhanced monetary
assistance for the gas victims.