Bhopal gas tragedy: 30 years on,the Nation just forgot the Victims and justice denied!
Palash Biswas
Bhopal disaster - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster
The Bhopal disaster, also referred to as the Bhopal gas tragedy, was a gas leak incident in India, considered the world's worst industrial disaster. It occurred on ...
For me.Bhopal Gas Tragedy continues still today and would continue in future as we may not find any escape route from the continuous holocaust of the divided geopolitics bleeding and bleeding and bleeding…Not even born 30 years ago when the gas tragedy struck the city, yet the third generation of Bhopal is now bearing the brunt of toxic leak of Methyl Isocyanate from the carbide factory on the December 2, 1984.
For me,it is the phenomenon fountainhead wherefrom the millionaire billionaire class emerged to sell of the nation practicing brutal apartheid with fatal Methyl Isocyanate which killed our fellow fellow Indian citizens for whom no bell tolls no where.
Dr Satpathy conducted over 800 autopsies within days after the tragedy. He had also examined the foetuses of pregnant women who died that night and had concluded that the toxins would be passed on for generations.
"Union Carbide had said in its manual that the methyl isocyanate (MIC) would not cross the plancental blood barrier level. But the same toxin in the pregnant ladies who died that night was also found in their foetuses. MIC had clearly crossed the placental barrier. It would have adverse effect even in the future generations," Dr Satpathy claimed.
A study conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had conducted a study between 1985-94 and found that psychiatric disorders in children exposed to the toxic gas was 12.66 per cent as compared to just 2.4 per cent among children not exposed to the gas.
Whatever compensation the victims managed to get,no one would get in future as India signed Nuclear agreements with all developed nations modifying the liabilities of the multinational companies involved with industrial disaster and the modified minimum governance taking over helms does ensure to bail out every war criminal against humanity so that no Union Carbide,no Dow Chemicals and No Anderson would be tried anywhere on this earth.
Thus,Bhopal Gas tragedy remains the foundation of the glittering India at sale and we,the miserable Indian biometric digital citizens are predestined to die as the people died in Bhopal to seek eternal abode and it is all about our business friendly neo liberal blind religious nationalism,the infinite capital of global imperialism unipolar.
As on 2nd December some Mohammad Zafar wrote on Facebook wall,the status has not changed as yet and has not to change at all.
Pl read:
Today is 2nd Dec. The Bhopal Disaster day.
Why government Supported UCIL plant and why it was not interested in acting strongly against UCIL plant? first because of foreign aid, second Many Indian business bodies were also its part and some examples are given below.
Some facts about Relation of bureaucrats, politicians and Union Carbide Plant.
UCIL plant was seen as an example of Industrial growth in India. In M P state board textbooks factory was shown as a tourist spot. The relation between factory's top officials and state government was very strong. Chief Minister Arjun Singh's family based welfare society had got big donations from UCIL.(Rajgopal)
In Union Carbide factory's employee list, many were relatives of top bureaucrats, businessmen and politicians of the state. For example the Public relation Officer A K Awasthi was a nephew of former state education minister, Narasimha Rao Dikshit. The purchase officer R. P. J. Rana was the brother-in-law of R K Khanna, special secretary to the government of Madhya Pradesh. A timekeeper Devinder Singh was the nephew of Union Minister Digvijay Singh. (Rajgopal 1987).
Two days before world's worst industrial disaster's 30th anniversary, Amnesty International Secretary General Salil Shetty on Sunday said that the Narendra Modi-led NDAgovernment should raise issues pertaining to the Bhopal Gas tragedy with US PresidentBarack Obama during his visit to India in January next year.
"It is time to give victims and survivors the compensation they deserve. It is time to clean up the site and toxic wastes. And it is time to ensure justice and bring Dow Chemicals and Carbide to book," he told reporters here.
Dow Chemicals had taken over Union Carbide Corporation, US, years after the December 1984 toxic gas leak from its plant here killed thousands of people and affected more than 5.5 lakh people.
Shetty said previous governments let Union Carbide off the hook by underestimating the number of people killed and maimed.
"The Indian government has to urgently re-verify the data against health records and make the figures credible and in the line with Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and even state government records. The recent announcement by Union Minister in this regard is a welcome move," he said.
"Most importantly, for three decades, Union Carbide has used USA as a safe haven from criminal charges to dodge culpable homicide. The Bhopal Chief Judicial Magistrate has called Union Carbide six times but because of their consistent no show, has called it an 'absconder'," Shetty said.
Demanding that the top rung US officials of Dow and Union
Carbide be brought to book, Shetty said after 25 years, only seven Union Carbide India officials have been convicted and not a single American employee who was on top of the chain of the command has been brought to justice.
He said that a foreign company's disregard for Indian judicial system is outrageous.
"It is time that the Modi government takes Bhopal tragedy as a serious issue with Obama when he visits India on January 26," the global human rights watchdog member said.
Shetty recalled the US government's response to BP oil spill in Gulf of Mexico in 2010 where the oil major was held liable and had to pay a whopping USD 20 billion as fine and for the cleanup.
"The double standards are outrageous. If the same disaster was caused by an Indian company on US soil, there is no way they would have got away with it. The US has to show that it treats all human lives as equal, whether you are poor Muslim woman in Bhopal or a US citizen in Louisiana who suffered from the BP oil spill.
"We know that the safety standard in the West Virgina plant of Union Carbide was much higher than Bhopal. It is time to right these wrongs," he said.
The activist dubbed USD 470 million paid by Union Carbide in an out of court settlement in 1989 for the Bhopal Gas tragedy as just tip of the iceberg.
"On behalf of Amnesty International, I am here to say the victims and survivors of the worst industrial disaster of our times can't be asked to wait any longer. 30 years ago about 20,000 people died, up to half a million affected. They can't wait any longer," he said.
Business Standard reports:
Contrary to the capricious idea that Warren Anderson's recent death in Florida, USA this year would bury all answers on Bhopal, survivors of Bhopal gas tragedy are not ready to give up easily in demanding answers and justice. In the past thirty years they now have more supporters in favour of their demands.
They now want John Mcdonald, present secretary Union Carbide Corporation US and Dow Chemical Company to come to Bhopal district court. The court has issued summons against Dow recently.
Anderson who was seen as villain of 1984 Bhopal gas disaster, died in Florida, USA on September 29. The non-government organisations and survivors regret that the 92 year old Anderson died unshackled making their pain severer.
They would now never be able to see a possibility that he could have answered to the mystery as to who ensured his safe passage from Bhopal. Throughout his life he kept on changing his residences to avoid subpoenas.
Four days after the disaster, Anderson appeared in Bhopal and was arrested immediately. But he was let off within hours of his arrest, allegedly after some senior government leader in Delhi called up then chief minister Arjun Singh. He managed to escape allegedly under safe passage of few officials and politicians. The controversy imbibed Rajiv Gandhi, PV Narsimha Rao, former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh Arjun Singh and the then US president Ronald Regan. None of them is alive to authenticate that day's dramatic account.
Arjun Singh always refused to name the caller that triggered many speculations. Even in his autobiography he kept the subject of Anderson's possible arrest under ambiguity. "It is a state secret that I shall carry to my grave," he wrote.
Washington rejected extradition of Anderson first in 1992 and later the Indian government's request in 2011 remained pending.
Survivors like Champa Devi and Rashida Bee burst out with anger and poignancy as both had lost their family members to the tragedy.
"Instead of putting that murderer of Bhopal behind bars for the rest of his life, our governments not only provided him safe passage but also failed to bring him to justice during the past thirty years," they rued.
The joint recipient of the 2004 Goldman Environmental Prize, also known as "Green Nobel" both the courageous ladies have not lost their hopes that the new government will at least bring the absconding Union Carbide Corporation and its secretary John Macdonald and officials of Dow Chemical Company to Bhopal district court for fixing liabilities against the grave criminal negligence.
Another activist Satinath Sarangi, also known as Satyu; who left his PhD in Metallurgical Engineering mid-way during 1984 and joined the struggle of survivors, says, "We cannot give up easily. Had the government made proper efforts to ease the pain of the Bhopal gas tragedy survivors, we should not be required here. This is not the question of issues, but of human lives and that too of our next generations?"
Even after three decades, Satyu, Champa Devi and Rashida Bi have not lost an ounce of strength in raising their voices against injustice. Their struggle is punctuated by talks with higher authorities, media, social activists across the globe and demonstrations at Delhi and Bhopal. Besides, they render support to the victims in ensuring them medical care and welfare through their organisations.
All the three have withstood against all odds during the last three decades.
They have a detailed account of day-to-day sufferings of people, while their fellow survivors and activists wave posters and shouted slogans outside the abandoned Union Carbide factory the three keep on raising issues that come up as an outcome of disaster.
The poisonous gas methyl isocyanate leaked from the factory on December 2-3 night, 1984, is estimated to have claimed 5295 (according to official figures) and 25,000 lives (activists' and other records) and left more than half-a-million injured. The struggle is continued against the second disaster -- soil and water contamination -- the long-term effects of the tragedy. Rachna Dhingra, another activist who also has covered a long distance to show her solidarity for survivors, is engaged in a survey that has startling findings.
"They are dying at young, say, between 45-50 years age bracket," she says, "Our primary findings in one kilometer radius of the factory reveal that surviors died of diseases like cancer, pulmonary, liver and kidney disorders; birth deformities at early age. What continue to torment and kill them is a well-known fact."
All the activists and those who are determined to fight want nothing as a fresh dole but employment and medical support.
Releasing in India on 5th Dec.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO6xCAsv4s4
BHOPAL A PRAYER FOR RAIN | Official Trailer | Kal Penn, Mischa Barton, Martin Sheen
The official trailer of the much anticipated movie 'Bhopal A Prayer For Rain' starring for the first time...
YOUTUBE.COM
Anderson died unpunished, say survivors of Bhopal gas tragedy - Hindustan Times
Organisations working for welfare of survivors of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy today alleged that former...
HINDUSTANTIMES.COM|BY HINDUSTAN TIMES
http://kractivist.wordpress.com/…/birth-defects-from-bhopa…/
Birth defects from Bhopal rise again #dowchemical #unioncarbide
Charity warns of worsening situation 28 years after disaster. London :-Full page advertisements in British newspapers at the weekend claim that horrific birth...
KRACTIVIST.WORDPRESS.COM
Mohammad Zafar added photos to At Union Carbide Plant.
in a very busy shcedule somehow I managed to visit union carbide plant from inside of boundaries. Some boys were playing cricket inside the premises of Plant. It was looking like an ugly compund the only thing was making it walkable was cricket match of boys.
http://post.jagran.com/bhopal-gas-tragedy-court-rejects-ple…
Bhopal gas tragedy: Court rejects plea to raise rap under IPC section
Bhopal : A sessions court on Tuesday dismissed a petition filed by Madhya Pradesh government seeking increase in quantum of punishment awarded by a trial court to former officials of now-defunct...
POST.JAGRAN.COM
28 years later, women in Bhopal still waiting for justice | Amnesty International
Tens of thousands of victims of India's worst ever industrial disaster are still waiting for justice, and women are suffering disproportionately.
AMNESTY.ORG
Just read as Indian Express reports:Along Berasiya Road, one of the many leading to the now derelict pesticide plant, the landscape is dotted with the exoskeletons of industrial units that shut down after that night killed and maimed thousands. Then, along the New Bhanpur Bridge road that leads away from the factory site, signboards spring up every 20 metres or so announcing the distance up to the Bhopal Memorial Hospital.
There have been many blips across the country since, including one just 18 km away from Bhopal where 500 tonnes of Basmati rice went up in flames at Mandideep industrial area on June 8 this year.
Taken together, those blips add up to this number: 1174. That was the total number of documented fatalities from industrial accidents in 2012 in just 11 states — in only the organised sector —according to figures collected by the Labour Ministry's Directorate General, Factory Advice Service and Labour Institutes (DGFASLI) from the chief inspector of factories of states and union territories. These official statistics have been updated only till 2012,and there are no credible figures available for the vast unorganised sector, even though ensuring industrial safety will be a crucial factor in making Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Make in India' dream become a reality.
The issue of disposal is one of the most controversial fallouts of the tragedy, the lack of resolution of which has led to an estimated 350 tonnes of solid waste continuing to lie inside the ruins of the Union Carbide plant.
It has been stuck in court cases and agitations ever since an NGO first highlighted in 2004 through a PIL in Madhya Pradesh High Court that soil sample tests carried out in and around the closed plant showed waste was continuing to pollute the air and water in the surroundings areas.
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BHOPAL GAS TRAGEDY: 30 YEARS ON
A chemical gas spill on December 2, 1984 from Union Carbide Corp, a US-owned factory, resulted in one of the worst chemical disasters in history. An accidental leakage of more than 40 tonnes of methyl isocyanate gas (MIC) killed thousands of people in Bhopal, a city in central India and affected millions more.
350 tonnes of waste and factory deaths that no one even counts
The Indian Express
As one enters old Bhopal's Arif Nagar area, there are two enduring reminders of the city's toxic legacy that goes back to a fateful winter night three decades ago, when 30 tonnes of Methyl Isocyanate gas leaked out of the Union Carbide factory.
Along Berasiya Road, one of the many leading to the now derelict pesticide plant, the landscape is dotted with the exoskeletons of industrial units that shut down after that night killed and maimed thousands. Then, along the New Bhanpur Bridge road that leads away from the factory site, signboards spring up every 20 metres or so announcing the distance up to the Bhopal Memorial Hospital.
There have been many blips across the country since, including one just 18 km away from Bhopal where 500 tonnes of Basmati rice went up in flames at Mandideep industrial area on June 8 this year.
Taken together, those blips add up to this number: 1174. That was the total number of documented fatalities from industrial accidents in 2012 in just 11 states — in only the organised sector —according to figures collected by the Labour Ministry's Directorate General, Factory Advice Service and Labour Institutes (DGFASLI) from the chief inspector of factories of states and union territories. These official statistics have been updated only till 2012,and there are no credible figures available for the vast unorganised sector, even though ensuring industrial safety will be a crucial factor in making Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Make in India' dream become a reality.
Take the accident six months ago near Bhopal, for instance. The fire at Daawat Foods Ltd resulted in an estimated loss of rice worth Rs 180 crore. Fortunately, there were no casualties as the fire happened in the storage area early in the morning.
M K Varshney, Principal Secretary in Madhya Pradesh's Department of Labour, told The Indian Express that incidents take place despite the administration's best efforts and repeated mock tests on factories and units conducted by senior officers in the state government's labour and industrial safety wings, including Varshney himself.
Denying the charge that the state's factory inspectors are diploma holders, as was the case at the time that the Bhopal leak happened, Varshney said, "All our factory inspectors are engineers. Other states too may have stepped up the vigil after the tragedy, but we are the sufferers. So the vigil is even higher."
He added that all district magistrates in Madhya Pradesh have been given the additional responsibility to carry out inspections at industries categorised as "hazardous" in nature.
The next step forward for Bhopal is an expected trial run of an incinerator plant at Pithampur in Madhya Pradesh's Dhar district, using 10 tonnes of waste from the Union Carbide factory site, that has been tentatively scheduled for December 30.
The issue of disposal is one of the most controversial fallouts of the tragedy, the lack of resolution of which has led to an estimated 350 tonnes of solid waste continuing to lie inside the ruins of the Union Carbide plant.
It has been stuck in court cases and agitations ever since an NGO first highlighted in 2004 through a PIL in Madhya Pradesh High Court that soil sample tests carried out in and around the closed plant showed waste was continuing to pollute the air and water in the surroundings areas.
According to Pravir Krishn, MP's Principal Secretary, Health, and the officer overseeing the crucial 'Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation Department', if the trial run were to go through successfully, the remaining 340? tonnes of UCIL waste can then be incinerated over the next five weeks or so.
"The company (Ramky Group) has said they will finish it in five weeks after the trial. Once we take away the waste, the process of remediation on the structure will happen. A firm from Mumbai has been tied up for this project that entails an estimated cost of Rs 110 crore," Krishn said.
"There is no gas now at the site. The medical emergency and trauma is also largely over. The problem is now poverty of the third generation survivors, which is as much a part of the remediation process," he added.
Coming 30 years after that December 2, the waste disposal could also mark the beginning of a closure of sorts. For activists such as Abdul Jabbar, who are working for the tragedy's survivors, the people near the defunct factory, the tragedy will linger till the time "they continue to face air and water pollution from the leaching of the solid waste lying in the factory".
The Union government did take some steps over the last 30 years to avoid another Bhopal. Four years after the tragedy, the Factories Act 1948 was amended and a new chapter - Chapter IVA that relates to hazardous processes - was added to the legislation, which clearly spelt out the responsibilities of every occupier of an industrial premise, including the need to draw up an 'On-site Emergency Plan' and detailed disaster control measures for his factory with the approval of the Chief Inspector of Factories.
These were changes introduced subsequently to the Environmental Protection Act in 1986 and the 'Manufacture, Storage and Import of Hazardous Chemical' rules in 1989.
Safety experts, though, say this still falls short of what is needed and point to proactive steps taken in other countries after Bhopal.
In the US, for instance, two years after the leak, the Congress passed the Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act, which laid out specific monitoring and reporting systems to beef up safety protocols. This includes the Toxic Releases Inventory, which requires companies to report if they produce more than 25,000 pounds of a listed chemical or handle more than 10,000 pounds of it.
In 1990, amendments to the Clean Air Act, known as "Bhopal" provisions, established the Risk Management Program to help prevent chemical accidents an authorised the Chemical Safety Board to investigate such accidents and recommend safety procedures.
Among other refurbishments was the US Department of Labor's Hazard Communication Standard, issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which is based on a simple concept ? that employees have both a need and a right to know the hazards and identities of the chemicals they are exposed to when working. They also need to know what protective measures are available to prevent adverse effects from occurring.
These are still grey areas in the Indian industrial safety scenario.
(Tomorrow: The danger zones: Industrial states, unorganised sector)
DEC 2, 1984: WARNING SIGNS WERE IGNORED
For India's industrial sector, the run-up to the Bhopal disaster holds several lessons, considering that the deadly accident was preceded by several warning signs that should have set off the alarm bells well before the tragedy unfolded.
1976: Eight years before the accident, two trade unions complained of pollution inside the plant.
1981: A worker died after inhaling a large amount of phosgene gas.
1982: A phosgene leak forced 24 workers to be admitted to a hospital. A month later, a methyl isocynate leak affected 18 workers.
1983-84: By 1982-end, during 1983 and the initial months of 1984, there were leaks of MIC, chlorine and phosgene.
Dec 2, 1984: Water entered a side pipe that was missing its slip-blind plate and entered a tank that contained 42 tonnes of MIC. A runaway exothermic reaction forced the emergency venting of pressure from the MIC holding tank, releasing a large volume of toxic gases. About 30 tonnes of MIC escaped from the tank into the atmosphere and were blown in southeastern direction over Bhopal by the winds.
Even as the 30th anniversary of the Bhopal gas disaster is being observed in India, its victims continue to be plagued with a number of problems that have not been resolved over the years.
The pyres have died, but the memories of 1984 still smoulder.
A girl who suffers from hearing and speech disorders reacts to the camera at a rehabilitation centre supported by Bhopal Medical Appeal, for children who were born with mental and physical disabilities, in Bhopal. All photographs: Danish Siddiqui
Former maintenance worker, Mohammed Yaqub, poses in his house with his old identity card from the defunct Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal where he once worked.
http://www.rediff.com/news/report/pix-bhopal-gas-tragedy-30-years-on/20141202.htm
The sun sets behind the abandoned former Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal.
Thick dust covers chemical bottles in a laboratory at the abandoned former Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal.
People wait to receive medicine at a clinic supported by Bhopal Medical Appeal for people affected by the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster in Bhopal.
A sign outlining emergency procedures, in the event of a gas leak, stands against a wall in the control room of the abandoned former Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal.
Children play on a field next to the abandoned former Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal.
Sixty-four-year-old Zafar Ahmed, receives treatment at a clinic supported by Bhopal Medical Appeal in Bhopal.
A boy who was born with a mental disability looks out of a window at a rehabilitation centre supported by Bhopal Medical Appeal for children who were born with mental and physical disabilities in Bhopal.
A sticker is seen next to a panel in the control room of the abandoned former Union Carbide Corp pesticide plant in Bhopal.
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