Group of Ministers’ meeting on Gas

Bhopal, Apr 17: State Minister for Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation Health Ajay Vishnoi following the meting with the group of ministers formed by the Union Government charged that the Union Government is not fulfilling its responsibility for addressing the problems of the gas affected people. He charged that the Union Government has not released a single rupee for gas relief works in the last few years and added that the state government is expending Rs 45 crore on relief and rehabilitation works per year.

Vishnoi has demanded Rs 50 crore the union government per year for rehabilitation and treatment of gas victims or Rs 600 crore of corpus fund for the same. He charged that no action has been taken regarding the decisions taken in the last meeting in 2005 and added that state government had provided all the relevant information in the year 2005 itself. The minister also charged that the central government is yet to take any action on their proposal prepared for the cleaning of the Union Carbide Plant. Minister during the meeting urged the group of ministers and the PM foe implementing the decisions and pursue the legal battle against the Union Carbide seriously. He charged that GoI is neither approaching the court for the remaining compensation amount nor coming forward to take the responsibility.

Union Minister Arjun Singh, Oskar Fernadis, Ram Vilas Paswan and others attended the meeting. State Minister for Commercial Tax Babulal Gaur in his letter to the group of ministers has informed that if the compensation for the gas affected people of the remaining 20 wards of Bhopal is getting delayed, then instructions should be issued for providing free of cost treatment for the victims in the Gas Department related hospitals as the interim relief.