10 Bhopal gas tragedy survivors end fast after getting govt assurance

The ten women agitators broke their 29-hour-long fast on Saturday with fruit juice offered by officials of the state government and district administration.
Survivors of 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy stage a protest demanding proper additional compensation, in Bhopal. (Photo | PTI)
Survivors of 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy stage a protest demanding proper additional compensation, in Bhopal. (Photo | PTI)

BHOPAL: Ten women survivors of the 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy demanding additional compensation for the disaster victims have called off their hunger strike after getting positive response from both the Madhya Pradesh and Union governments, their leaders said.

They had launched the hunger strike at Neelam Park in the state capital on Friday.

The ten women agitators broke their 29-hour-long fast on Saturday with fruit juice offered by officials of the state government and district administration.

The Bhopal Gas Tragedy took place on the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984 when poisonous methyl isocyanate gas leaked from the Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, leaving several thousand people dead and lakhs injured.

Five organisations which are fighting for the cause of the Gas Tragedy victims in a statement on Saturday said the Madhya Pradesh Minister of Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief & Rehabilitation expressed agreement with the facts and figures presented by them and promised to finalise details in a meeting on January 4.

Earlier, the Union government had assured that all the documents put forth by them would be included in the papers to be presented before the Supreme Court bench hearing a curative petition for additional compensation, they said.

"Despite all odds and many disappointments of the last 38 years, we hope the New Year has begun with a hope for the survivors of the world's worst industrial disaster," the statement said.

The agitators were from the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh, Bhopal Gas Peedit Nirashrit Pensionbhogee Sangharsh Morcha, Bhopal Group for Information & Action, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha and Children Against Dow Carbide.

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