After last year’s insult to Bhopal gas victims when seven old men walked out of a local courtroom with glee in world’s biggest industrial disaster, gas victims of Bhopal on Saturday faced another insult from the local police when they were launching a rail roko (stop the trains) agitation to press for their demands.
The police caned and shelled tear gas on victims when they tried to disrupt trains in Bhopal and nearby Vidisha station. A number of victims are reported to have received mild to severe injuries. Those who received injuries also reportedly include an additional superintendent of police — Mohan Verma. According to police sources, victims were supported by anti-social elements who turned violent and started pelting stones at the police and authorities at Barkhedi railway crossing in the old city of Bhopal
"We had already submitted our course of action months back to launch the rail roko agitation on December 3, they did not listen to us and brushed our demands aside. The police today cane-charged a group of women protesters after they burnt an effigy,” said Rachna Dhingra, an activist of Bhopal Group for Information and Action. She and her group is fighting for gas victims.
Police sources said, protesters assembled at Barkhedi area and disrupted a train and when police intervened to remove them, they started pelting stones and set a vehicle of sub-divisional magistrate on fire. A number of Delhi- and Mumbai-bound trains had either been cancelled or had been stranded at many stations. A number of people have been reported injured and were admitted to government Hamidia Hospital.
Rashida Bee, leader of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmachari Sangh said that through the Bhopal gas tragedy survivors, they were demanding that the state and central governments present correct figures of health damages caused by Union Carbide in the soon to be heard curative petition before the Supreme Court of India.
In its curative petition for compensation from Union Carbide and Dow Chemicals, the central and state governments had presented thoroughly unscientific data. The survivors are also demanding to scrap Dow from Olympic games and make the company clean up the premises of closed entity of Union Carbide in Bhopal.
“Government is telling lies after lies,” Rachna alleged and said, “documents of Union Carbide, USA and the results of the medical research done by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) very clearly show that the 93 per cent of the survivors have been wrongly categorised as ‘temporarily injured’ and have been wrongfully given the compensation of Rs 25, 000 only.”
The protesters were demanding Rs 5 lakh compensation to each of the victims.
A press vehicle and few scribes also reportedly received injuries. This the first violent agitation in the last 27 years after the disaster. An Indian arm of US based Union Carbide spewed the toxic gas MIC in 2/3 December 1984 leaving more than 5000 people dead and thousand permanently injured.
