By IANS
Bhopal : The survivors of the Bhopal gas tragedy will file 100,000 petitions in the Supreme Court to demand more compensation for deaths and injuries caused by the toxic gas leakage from the pesticide plant here of the now defunct Union Carbide on the night of Dec 2, 1984.
The petitions will be filed on Nov 10 to impress upon the Supreme Court to rethink its May 3, 2007 judgement that turned down the plea from the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangathan, an association of the victims, seeking five times more compensation.
A revision petition was filed in the apex court Oct 3, and the fresh petitions will be submitted in support of that.
“It will possibly be the first instance of its kind in the history of independent India,” association convenor Abdul Jabbar said of the move to file a large number of petitions.
The organisation had earlier sought nearly five-fold increase in the $470 million compensation announced, but the court rejected the plea saying, “if any of the victims was denied proper compensation, he or she can approach the Claims Tribunal for appropriate settlement of claims.”
The petitioners had claimed that the $470 million compensation was inadequate and several victims did not receive the amount till date.
“We have always been saying that the settlement with Union Carbide on the claims of deaths and injuries has been insufficient. It was for 3,000 deaths and 102,000 people injured while the number of deaths so far have been 15,274 and injuries are 572,173. But our demand for five times compensation has gone unheard,” said Jabbar.
“On Oct 3, 1991, the Supreme Court in its judgement said that in case the number of deaths and the injured go up, the Indian government will pay the rest of the compensation,” he added.