Bhopal gas tragedy: Legacy of unpaid compensation

m.today

Bhopal, June 6: It’s been over 25 years since the Bhopal gas tragedy and all these years, the victims have struggled to get justice.

Now on the eve of the verdict in this case, here’s a look at how most still haven’t got a penny from the government:

Yogiraj Sharma, former Madhya Pradesh’s Health Director managed to get four lakh rupees - the highest compensation ever for his physically and mentally challenged daughter, born three months after the gas leak.

Contrast this with Leela Bayee, who was refused compensation for her son who was born three years after the tragedy. Pradeep is 20, but looks 13, which private doctors say could be a result of the gas leak.

"The court said that he is not eligible for compensation as he was born after the tragedy," says Leela Bayee. 

A former BJP MLA too used his clout to get three lakh rupees for the death of his brother, who died of renal failure after MIC exposure.
 
"I consider myself an important person both in the political and the social world, yet I had to fight for nine years and still got very little compensation," said Guttu Bhaiya, a former MLA.

But for 40-year-old Nafisa Ali, a teenager at the time of the disaster, it was a constant battle with sickness. All she got was a measly twenty-five thousand rupees. She died of renal failure.

Five years later, those like Waheed Khan, a local lawyer, are still fighting against the bias in compensation to gas victims.

"Either their cases were rejected or they received the minimum compensation of 25 thousand. On the other hand, we see the influential people have received the highest amounts," said Waheed khan, a counsel for the victims. 

The fight began much earlier.

As against a billion-dollar compensation in demand, in 1989, the Supreme Court brokered an out-of-court settlement between the Indian government and the Union Carbide - a full and final settlement of 470 million dollars, absolving the Union Carbide of all criminal and civil liabilities.

Even the statistics of the injured and the dead were manipulated. The 470-million dollar compensation was meant for only one lakh and eight thousand victims, quoted at that time by the government despite wide spread protest against this underestimation.

Eventually, the number of those affected was increased to nearly six lakh. But the compensation money was not, so each victim got far less than they should have and there are many who did not even get a single penny.