Bhopal:
A day after Justice Ahmadi's resignation as Chairman of the Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research trust, reactions from ground zero have started pouring in.(
Read: Supreme Court accepts Ahmadi's resignation from Bhopal Hospital Trust)
The Centre is all set to take over the Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Center set up for the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy. But activists and victims are wondering whether that will change anything?
ND Jayaprakash, an activist said, ''Today the Government of India moved an application to say they will take over the trust which is a decision we welcome. At the same time, it does not mean that the trustees will be absolved of all the liabilities and responsibilities.''
The Supreme Court on Monday accepted the resignation of justice A M Ahmadi. As the chairperson of the hospital trust, Justice Ahmadi was part of the Supreme Court bench that had diluted charges in the Bhopal case in 1996.
With this, the super-speciality Bhopal Memorial Hospital, set up in 2000 for the survivors of the Bhopal gas tragedy, will have a new custodian.
The hospital trust, facing allegations of human rights violation and corruption, has been dissolved. Ahmedi had asked the apex court twice in the past, to be relieved from the post. This time his request was accepted. However, the court appreciated his service.
The hospital trust was facing charges of serious nature. The allegations ranged from the not treating more than half of the gas tragedy victims to treating private patients and faking medicine and equipment bills.
Following is a detailed account of the lapses and allegations on the hospital.
Bhopal Memorial Hospital: Lapse 1 Total number of gas victims: 5, 72,000
Number of victims treated: 2, 50,000
(It unlawfully treated private clients and gave them preference over gas victims despite a 2009 Supreme Court decision to not open it to private patients)
Bhopal Memorial Hospital: Lapse 2 Treated private patients
(It submitted inflated medicine and equipment bills. A scam running into several cores. It's currently being investigated)
Bhopal Memorial Hospital: Lapse 3 Inflated medicine and equipment bills.
(Even with a corpus fund of Rs 500 core, the trust kept 50% posts of specialists vacant citing money shortage which resulted in the closure of six crucial departments)
Bhopal Memorial Hospital: Lapse 4Kept 50% posts of specialists vacant.
(The hospital was supposed to research long-term impact of the deadly methyl-isocynate gas on victims. Not only was the research suspended in 2007... not a single report has ever been published
Bhopal Memorial Hospital: Lapse 5 No research on long-term impact of methyl-isocynate.
(And most damaging was that the hospital allegedly conducted clinical trials on 160 unsuspecting gas victims with no prior approval)
Bhopal Memorial Hospital: Lapse 6Conducted illegal clinical trials on gas victims.
All these charges are under probe and at this time the Centre has taken over the trust.
Abdul Jabber Convener, Bhopal Gas Pidhit Mahila Udyog Sangathan said, ''We welcome the Supreme Court judgment. We have been demanding dissolution of the trust because it was not executing its responsibilities properly, there was a lot of corruption and the hospital failed to benefit the victims.''
While the custodian may have changed, the question is, will it alter the ground realities for the gas victims? And it still remains to be seen whether the hospital is able to fulfill its basic objective of serving the very people for who it was made for.