Bhopal:
It's been 25 years since the Bhopal gas tragedy. For the victims the wounds of trauma will never heal. Adding insult to injury is the disparity in compensation. What's worse is many still haven't got a penny.
Yogiraj Sharma , former Madhya Pradesh's health director managed to get 4 lakh rupees, the highest compensation ever for his physically and mentally challenged daughter , born 3 months after the gas leak.
On the other hand, Leela Bai was refused compensation for her son who was born 3 years after the tragedy. Her son Pradeep, is 20 but looks 13, which private doctors say could be a result of the gas leak.
According to the CIC court, Pradeep is not eligible for compensation as he was born after the gas leak.
A Former BJP MLA too used his clout to get 3 lakh rupees as compensation, one of the highest amounts for his brother's family who died of renal failure after exposure.
"I consider myself an important person both in the political and the social world, yet I had to fight for 9 years and still got very little compensation," said Guttu Bhaiya, former BJP MLA.
40-year-old Nafisa Ali died of renal failure. A teenager at the time of the disaster, her life was a constant battle with sickness. All she got was a measly 25 thousand rupees.
25 years later, those like Waheed, a local lawyer, are still fighting against the bias in compensation to gas victims. He says, "either their cases were rejected or they received the minimum compensation of 25 thousand rupees. On the other hand we see influential people who have received the highest amount.
The fight began much earlier. As against a billion dollar compensation and 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 1,08,000 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 6 lakh but the compensation money was not. So each victim got far less than they should have and there are many who did not get a single penny.