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Police
Arrest 52 Bhopal Children Outside Indian PM's House
Bhopal, May 6 (Pervez Bari): Fifty-two children of Bhopal survivors of
world's worst industrial disaster of December 1984 were arrested
outside the Indian Prime Minister's house in New Delhi by police when
they were agitating for audience with Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan
Singh for redressal to get their basic rights to health, livelihood
and clean environment.
More than 40 Bhopal children – the Generation Next of Union Carbide's
victims - along with their parents addressed the media in front of the
Prime Minister's House. Braving the risks of gathering in a
high-security zone, the children said that the Government must be
ashamed to make Bhopal victims walk and wait just to get their basic
rights to health, livelihood and clean environment.
An 11-year old Yasmin Khan of Bhopal, one of the youngsters who
completed the arduous 800 km march to Delhi from Bhopal, reportedly
said: "We are of the same age as Dr. Singh's grandchildren. Would he
let his grand-children drink poisoned water, or see them sitting on
the hot pavement for 40 days?"
It may be pointed out here that the Bhopal victims of the catastrophe
and their supporters after trekking 800 kms from Bhopal to Delhi are
on "dharna" (sit-in) at Jantar Mantar square to seek Prime Minister's
intervention to get their long pending demands addressed.
On 16 April, Yasmin wrote a letter to the Prime Minister with blood
drawn from Bhopal victims, seeking an hour of his time. This letter
was delivered to the Prime Minister along with hand-written notes from
more than 500 children from across the country. It has been more than
three months since the Prime Minister was first asked for an
appointment, and told about the Bhopalis' intent to undertake a "padayatra"
(foot-march) to New Delhi. Since then, 2800 people from 18 countries
have sent faxes to the Prime Minister's office urging him to meet the
Bhopalis' demands.
Meanwhile, in a meeting with the Bhopalis on 29 April Principal
Secretary in the PMO, Mr. T.K.A. Nair reportedly said that he would
help them meet the Prime Minister. So far, delegations of Bhopalis and
their supporters have met various ministers and MPs, the bureaucrats
in all relevant departments, and the Group of Ministers (GoM) on
Bhopal. The GoM, headed by Arjun Singh, said it agreed with survivors'
demands for an empowered commission and legal action against Dow
Chemical and Union Carbide.
The Bhopal organizations are demanding an Empowered Commission on
Bhopal to execute social, economic and medical rehabilitation,
environmental clean-up and provision of clean drinking water. The
groups have submitted a draft parliamentary bill for the Commission to
the GoM and the PMO.
According to the groups, the Commission should include representatives
of survivors organizations and considering the adverse effect on the
Generation Next of Bhopal victims, must function at least for 30
years.
In demanding justice, the Bhopal organizations are calling for
government action to produce the authorized representative of Union
Carbide as well as former Carbide Chairman, Warren Anderson who are
charged with culpable homicide and other grave offences.
They are demanding that the government must make Dow Chemical, 100 per
cent owner of Union Carbide, to clean up toxic contamination in and
around the factory. Further, the organizations are calling for
de-registration of Dursban and two other pesticides registered by
payment of bribes, and revocation of the approval given to Reliance
Industries to import Union Carbide's confessable Unipol PP technology.
(pervezbari@eth.net)
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