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Bhopal gas victims to fast for justice

NEW DELHI: Victims of the 1984 Bhopal lethal gas leak Thursday said they would begin an indefinite fast to demand a clean-up of toxic wastes that still lie around the factory at the centre of the tragedy.

Rashida Bee and Champa Devi Shukla, who were recently awarded the US Goldman Environmental Prize for their activism over the disaster, said that they, along with two others activists, would begin the fast - without water - on Friday.

Some 200 to 250 victims from Bhopal, in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh state, will be in New Delhi to support them, Bee told a media conference here.

“We will fast until the government listens to us,” she said. The activists are demanding that the Indian government immediately file a petition in the Federal Court of New York asking it to direct US company Dow Chemical, which in 2001 acquired Union Carbide - owner of the factory at the time of the disaster - to clean up the compound.

The US court, according to the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal non-governmental organisation, had in March ruled that if the Indian government files such a statement it could direct the company to clean the factory.

The Indian government, however, has not taken a decision so far, the NGO said in a statement released at the media conference.

“The deadline to file this plea is June 30. I don’t know why the government is dragging its feet,” said activist Satinath Sarangi, one of the four undertaking the fast.

“This action is to force the government to take this necessary step which will not only save them hundreds of millions of rupees but will also save the lives of thousands of people who live around the closed factory.” Sarangi said that Law Minister Hansraj Bharadwaj had recently told the activists that making such a petition would go against certain laws that govern the case, such as the Bhopal Act.

“This was the most perplexing response. There is no connection between this matter and the Bhopal Act,” said Sarangi, who has been campaigning for the victims’ rights for over a decade.

An estimated 5,000 tonnes of toxic waste is still lying around the factory, the activists said, claiming that more than 150,000 people were suffering from various ailments as a result. afp

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