Ten women survivors of the 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy called off their hunger strike here on Saturday after getting positive responses from both the Madhya Pradesh and Union governments, their leaders said. They had launched the hunger strike at Neelam Park here on Friday demanding additional compensation for the victims of the 1984 disaster.
The Bhopal Gas Tragedy took place on the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984 when poisonous methyl isocynate gas leaked from the Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, leaving several thousand people dead and lakhs injured. Five organizations which are fighting for the cause of the Gas Tragedy victims said in a statement that 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 presented 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. The ten women agitators broke their 29-hour-long fast with fruit juice offered by officials of the state government and district administration.
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. “Despite all odds and the many disappointments of the last 38 years, we hope this New Year has begun with hope for the survivors of the World's worst industrial disaster, the statement added.
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