On Friday, it will be 37 years since thousands of people were killed in a tragic gas leak from a pesticide plant owned by Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) in the Madhya Pradesh capital. On the night of December 2-3, the disaster occurred, and it is still considered as one of the worst industrial disasters in history. Around 500,000 people were exposed to methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas, as well as other highly toxic materials such as carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, etc. in and around the small towns near the plant.
In 2006 the state government filed an affidavit in court alleging that a toxic gas leak occurred from a closed Union Carbide factory and had killed 3,787 people as well as affected over 5.58 lakh people in the state capital. However, the victims’ groups claim that at least 25,000 people were killed in the tragedy.
Victims remain uncompensated 37 years later…
It has been 37 years since the disaster and the survivors and kin of the deceased are still waiting for fair compensation from the government. According to a report by PTI, each victim of the tragedy has so far received less than one-fifth of the allocated compensation.
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The financial assistance in 1989 was USD 470 million, it reported citing Bhopal Gas Peedith Sangharsh Sahayog Samiti (BGPSSS) convener N D Jayaprakash. ‘The dollars turned into more than ?3,000 crores in 2004, when the disbursements started, but the number of the victims swelled to 5.73 lakh and this amount was distributed among them. So, each victim got one-fifth of the compensation,’ he said, as per the report.
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