Bhopal’s people growing cynical

Press, 2 December 1985, Page 8

Bhopal’s people growing cynical

By MOSES MANOHARAN, of Reuter (through NZPA) Bhopal, India One year after poison gas enveloped Bhopal in the world’s worst industrial accident a new plague has settled on the central Indian city. It is uncertainty, discontent, and cynicism at relief measures and the reasons for a tragedy that killed 2500 people and maimed 125,000 while they slept on a cold dawn last December 3.

At the city’s main Hamidia hospital three patients still lie where they were brought one year ago. The name of what was once the Children’s Ward has changed. It is now the M.I.C. (Methyl Isocyanate) Ward, named after the gas that leaked from a pesticides factory owned by the Indian subsidiary of the United States firm, Union Carbide. Tents that grew up across the city for doctors to treat victims half-blinded by the gas and gasping for breath are now thronged by crowds claiming compensation. An Indian social scientist,

Shyama Charan Dube, said that cynicism was growing among Bhopal’s residents because many uncertainties still remained 12 months after the disaster. “No-one knows how much they will get as compensation, no-one knows the findings of the investigation into the leak, and no-one knows who has been punished or what the correct form of treatment is,” Dr Dube said. In one of Bhopal’s worsthit areas the shanty town of Jaya Prakash Nagar, opposite the factory, Sunil Kumar, aged 12, gives his younger brother a bath before going to school. His parents and five brothers and sisters died in the tragedy. Kumar escaped by hanging on to a truck that sped away from the fumes.

“The (Madhya Pradesh) Government gave me 10,080 rupees ($1000) and I put it in a bank and use 400 rupees ($4O) a month for expenses,” Sunil said.

“People tell me I will finally get 150,000 rupees from Union Car-

bide. Let’s see.” The police guard the entrance to the shut-down factory where slogans on the gates say: “Killer Carbide.” Inside the factory Shamsuddin, a former Union Carbide employee, has started a fast to the death to press demands for other jobs for retrenched staff. About 15 members of his union sit with him under a brightly coloured tent playing cards. A Government spokesman said that the demands were the firm’s responsibility. Its top five officials and the head of Union Carbide in the United States, Warren Anderson, still face charges in Bhopal of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

the state’s Chief Minister, Mr Motilal Vora, promises never to allow a repeat of the tragedy. “No such factory will be allowed in this state again. When the factory came up in 1969 there were no laws to deal with this kind of problem. Now we are aware of the dangers. There will be no repetition,” he sdj<

He revealed that the Chief Inspector of Factories and three of his officials had been sacked over the tragedy but then the three officials were reinstated.

Dr Dube, chairman of the Madhya Pradesh Higher Education Grants Commission, said that there was uncertainty in Bhopal. The rich, who suffered less from the disaster because their homes were not near the factory, regarded the gas victims as malingerers; the poor doubted if they would get just compensation.

"Bhopal’s people initially responded sincerely by collecting money and helping the victims with medicine. Then they started seeing what was in it for them,” Dr Dube said. An Assistant Director of Claims, Vijay Ambekar, said that, since the Government started accepting claims for compensation three months ago, about 160,000 forms had been submitted and the final total was likely to be about 400,000.

Mr Ambekar plans to fill in his own form. He intends claiming one million rupees ($100,000) for the mental agony his family went through on the day of the leak when they fled the town. He does not expect to get the full amount. “I will do it for my internal satisfaction. If I get 200 rupees, ($2O) I will be happy,” he said. Narendar Bhandari, the director of Hamidia’s hospital, who led the rescue work on the day of the tragedy and was hailed as a hero, is now a controversial figure.

Dr Bhandari, a child specialist, said that 500 women had had abortions out of 2600 women who were pregnant during the gas leak, and 30 children had been born with congenital defects.

Thousands of people would suffer from breathing trouble and pain in their joints for the rest of their lives.

“The long-term effects of the gas will be known only afterMiother 18 months,” he _ _

Dr Bhandari is convinced that his use of broncho dilators was the best treatment for the victims. But his views were challenged by some citizens groups who demanded the use of sodium thiosulphate.

The Indian Council for Medical Research, India’s highest medical body, recommended sodium thiosulphate’s use if patients wanted it and at the doctor’s discretion.

Dr Bhandari argues that the drug is an antidote for cyanide poisoning, which, he said, lasted only 48 hours. “So if we use sodium thiosulphate one year later, it can do little more than give psychological relief,” he said.

The controversy had frustrated doctors already hardpressed by an unending queue of people wanting hospital certificates to support their claims for compensation. “I, have no doubt that once the claims are settled our patients will drop by 80 per he said. , $