Date:20/07/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/07/20/stories/2004072012961100.htm

National

Gas victims take out victory rally

By Our Staff Correspondent

BHOPAL, JULY 19. There was euphoria and excitement among the victims of the 1984 Union Carbide gas disaster today after news reached the State capital that the Supreme Court had ordered the immediate disbursement of Rs. 1,503 crores lying with the Reserve Bank as corpus created by the court to satisfy the claims of the gas victims.

The 2004 Goldman Environmental Award winners, Champa Devi Shukla and Rashida Bee, who are also leaders of a trade union of gas affected women workers, led a jubilant group of petitioners and took out a victory procession in front of the Carbide plant to celebrate the "monumental" decision. They danced to the beat of drums and there was endless sprinkling of "gulal" (dry colours).

Ms. Rashida said that it was not a victory for the petitioners alone but for over 500,000 gas victims who would benefit from the Supreme Court order.

Ms. Shabnam, who lives in the timber market residential area behind Dussehra Maidan, was among the 36 petitioners who had filed the writ in the Supreme Court on March 5, 2003.

She told The Hindu that she was happy that justice had been done at least 20 years after the gas disaster.

Similar sentiments were expressed by Kamlesh Sharma of Ibrahimganj, and Hukumchand Sharma, who lives near the Ashoka Garden Church.

The State Government would now have to pay attention to solving the drinking water and other problems confronting the victims, they said.

The founder of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action (BGIA), Satinath Sarangi, who has been in the forefront mobilising the gas victims, told presspersons that the Supreme Court decision was a major victory for the Bhopal survivors.

He said that there had been irregularities and corruption in the disbursement of compensation earlier. Now, the remaining part of the compensation should go directly to the bank accounts of the victims through account payee cheques.

Since 2002, the State and the Central Governments had attempted to appropriate the balance of compensation claiming that the survivors were not entitled to the interest on the settlement.

In June 2002, the survivors led by Ms. Rashida and Ms. Tara Bai, along with Mr. Sarangi went on a 19-day hunger strike mobilising more than 1500 other hunger strikers globally to block the Government's plans.