Bhopal gas tragedy: 10 women survivors end fast after getting assurances from govt
Bhopal(PTI): 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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Confident we are going to win Kerala: Shashi Tharoor
New Delhi (PTI): Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday expressed confidence in the victory of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala, saying the Congress-led alliance will win more than 75 seats out of the total 140 in the state.
Tharoor, who hails from Kerala, said he was not surprised to see the results of the exit polls, most of which predicted a victory for the UDF that has been out of power for 10 years in the state.
"We have been on the ground. I have campaigned in 59 constituencies across 12 districts out of 14. I was very confident we are going to win.
"Everything that I have picked up from not just my party colleagues and workers but also from other observers, media and others have always convinced me that we were going to score a comfortable win of above 75 seats. And all the (exit) polls have confirmed the same thing," he told reporters here.
The Thiruvananthapuram MP said he was not surprised to see the results of the exit polls but in general he was not a big fan of exit polls in India.
"Because ours is not purely a homogenous society. We have to take into account gender issue, caste issue, class issue, regional disparities. You never get a convincingly large enough sample to give an accurate poll and now there is the additional complication that we have heard about in West Bengal this year that many people are unwilling to answer the questions of the pollsters," he said.
The Congress leader said normally, it used to be below 10 per cent that people said that they would not answer.
"Even if you are a reputable exit pollster, in Bengal, one polling company has said 60 per cent of people refused to answer. So, what is the worth of a poll where 60 per cent of your respondents have not answered," he said.
Several exit polls on Wednesday predicted a comeback by the Congress-led UDF in Kerala after 10 years, dethroning the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF).
Polling for the 140-member Kerala assembly was held on April 9. Results of assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Puducherry, besides Kerala, will be announced on May 4.
