Organisations working for the welfare of survivors of the 1984 Bhopal Gas tragedy have alleged that due to the Madhya Pradesh government's gross neglect, people living around the abandoned Union Carbide factory, are forced to consume contaminated water.
"Thousands of residents are forced to drink and cook with the ground water that is contaminated by the hazardous wastes of the Union Carbide factory. This is criminal negligence on part of the Madhya Pradesh government," Bhopal Group for Information and Action (BGIA) convener Satinath Sarangi told reporters here today.
Apart from BGIA, four other organisations-- Bhopal Gas Peedit Nirashrit Pension Bhogi Sangharsh Morcha, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmachari Sangh, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha, Children against Carbide, have also targeted the government on this issue.
"Despite the May 2004 Supreme Court order and the intervention by its Monitoring Committee, at least 800 families are being denied piped clean drinking water," Sarangi claimed.
Sarangi, who is also a member of the Monitoring Committee, said that on February 19 this year, the panel chairman Justice K K Lahoti had given clear directions that the work of providing clean drinking water to all these families has to be completed by July 30.
