Madhya Pradesh: Bhopal tragedy should be made election manifesto
Nuclear war is not the only way the world would end. India has realised damage of that scale can be caused by other things too through the 1984 Bhopal tragedy.
Earthquake in tsunami Kendrick havoc, the damage can be intensified by man made disasters as well. dangerous looking right around the corner in every country that has a nuclear reactor in its premises. Hiroshima and Nagasaki disaster result of massive war related cruelty. Batman who should be held responsible for tragedies like that of Bhopal? it has been 34 years since the gas tragedy took place claiming thousands of life and a few generations of children being born with disabilities result of inhaling the poisonous gas by the mothers. People are still bearing the brunt of this tragedy and are paying through their future for this. Yet no culprit has been arrested or no one has been held responsible for this inhuman incident.
When the incident took place in 1984 about 10,000 people were killed as a result. Mother dance of death has not stop ever since. People still die as a result of that gas leakage.
Everyday at least five people feel the impact of that incident till date. Methyl isocyanate gas the delete on the night of 2nd and 3rd December in 1984 claimed lives of 10,047 people in one go when it leaked from the premises of a factory that manufacture pesticides.
As per the statistics 5,47,000 people were affected by this leakage. This data has been put together by the Madhya Pradesh government. As per their sources, more than 15,000 people have paid through their lives subsequent to that.
In the last 34 years since the incident many elections have come and gone. streets of Bhopal a resonating with election rallies and people are expecting a new government to come into power by December this year. Unfortunately no party has ever made this an election manifesto so far. The BJP is trying to win this election by feeding communal poison to people. but no party, including BJP, has ever dared to discuss the issues of those affected by the gas tragedy so far.
What is interesting is, Bhopal gas tragedy rehabilitation and relief Minister Anil Sarang himself was affected by the incident. That has not been able to add much quality to the lives of survivors.
On one hand there is a pain of Bhopal gas tragedy culprits going scot free; and on the other, the survivors are living a life of punishment. They are forced to fight two battles.
on one hand the health complications are very high and on the other they are still fighting for a relief amount from the government.
After the election dates were announced, the victims of Bhopal gas tragedy met and decided to support a candidate would help them get Rs 5 lakh as relief money. Bhopal group for information and action, Bhopal gas peedit nirashrit pensionbhogi sangharsh morcha and Bhopal gas peedit mahila stationary karmachari sangh are working to provide relief and rehabilitation for the victims of gas tragedy.
According to them, if the candidates can make this a part of their official election manifesto, this would be their commitment and a legal recourse is possible of they do not heed to their words.
A criminal callousness has been exhibited in killing that one of the biggest man-made human tragedies of the world.
Victims have not been provided with medical aid legal or financial assistance in fighting the battle.
None of the projects that would dispose off the poisonous chemicals that are polluting the groundwater resources took off really.
None of the politicians are interested in helping the victims.
According to them the Bhopal Gas tragedy victims do not play any significant role in winning the elections.
Even politicians understand winning elections is going to be very difficult if the contest with lofty social commitments. Hence they have taken to elections with emotional issues.
As the date of election is approaching, hoardings and banners have come up in areas where gas tragedy victims live such as Kazi camp, DIG overbridge, JP Nagar, Shahjahanabad and Jahangirabad etc.
The victims have come together to create a formidable political force. This is a promising development. What remains to be seen is how seriously would the political parties take this issue. Because, for politicians, Bhopal tragedy is a bygone incident. They do not deem it important to refer to it again after over 30 years of its occurrence.
There are seven constituencies in Bhopal. High number of victims live in Narela and North Bhopal areas. About 80-90% people have been directly affected by the tragedy.
There are considerable number of families and survivors and their families in Bhopal central and Huzoor areas. They are suffering from the aftermath of the incident.
About 40% inhabitants here are the survivors of the tragedy and their number is massive enough to have an impact on the outcome of the elections.
Berasia constituency is considered as extension of the rural area of Bhopal. Many residents of this place are those who migrated from Govindapura other parts of Bhopal. At least this time around, Bhopal tragedy should become a topic of discussion and manifesto to ensure the victims are done justice.
There are hundreds of Bhopal's all over the country and they may render some tragedy or the other some day. If we don't learn our lessons from Bhopal tragedy, we may be forced to pay a big price for our ignorance later. Hence, while serving some justice to the Bhopal victims, the govt should also look at ways of avoiding such disasters.
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Justice Nagarathna calls for creation of judicial reforms commission to reduce pendency in courts
Bengaluru (PTI): Justice B V Nagarathna of the Supreme Court on Saturday called for the creation of a judicial reforms commission to reduce mounting pendency in the courts, saying systemic incentives across stakeholders were contributing to delays in justice delivery.
She was speaking at the Supreme Court Bar Association's (SCBA) first National Conference on the theme "Reimagining judicial governance: strengthening institutions for democratic justice" here.
Nagarathna, who was part of the panel session addressing "From Pendency to Prompt Justice: Rethinking Justice Delivery in Indian Courts," said, this reforms commission must have membership not only from the judiciary of the Supreme Court, the High Court, as well as the District judiciary, but also have members from the Bar, Attorney General, Solicitor General, and also certain members representing the Bar at the institutional level, such as the Bar President, and from the government side to enable an inter-institutional dialogue on reducing pendency.
She reflected that, from the point of view of various stakeholders, a litigant gains from the status quo, to proceed to prolong proceedings.
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"A lawyer or an advocate loves adjournments and postponement because he/she benefits from per appearance and extended timelines. A government department reduces bureaucratic risk by appealing rather than accepting defeat.
"A judge, and particularly a trial judge, is always acting with caution because he/she is confronted with appellate reversal, and therefore he/she prefers procedural caution rather than having an aggressive docket control. Each of these decisions is individually rational, but how does it help the system? It is only leading to systemic delay," she added.
In order to break this equilibrium, Justice Nagarathna said that what is required is institutional interventions through a judicial commission to reduce pendency, rather than merely exhorting better conduct from judges, adherence to procedural timelines, asking advocates not to seek adjournments, urging the government to reduce litigation, or expecting courts to function round the clock and judges not to take leave.
On pendency, the judge questioned the inclusion of defective filings in court statistics, suggesting that such cases should not be counted until they are procedurally ready for hearing.
She also underlined the role of the government as the "largest generator of litigation", noting that officials tend to file appeals to avoid scrutiny, even in cases where disputes could be settled earlier. This, she said, results in cases travelling through multiple judicial levels unnecessarily.
"The government publicly expresses concern about judicial backlog, while simultaneously feeding that backlog through relentless litigation," she observed.
Justice Nagarathna further claimed judicial capacity is constrained by inadequate public investment, including delays in appointment of judges, lack of infrastructure and insufficient use of technology.
Among the measures suggested, she called for improved case management, curbs on unnecessary adjournments, adoption of technology, prioritisation of cases, promotion of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, and creation of specialised benches.
She also urged advocates to adhere to professional and ethical standards, litigants to avoid frivolous appeals, and the government to adopt a practical litigation policy and ensure timely funding and appointments in the judiciary.
