Women survivors of gas tragedy denied meagre monthly pension, start agitation in Bhopal

Correspondent

NewsBits.in

BHOPAL: Women survivors of the gas tragedy have started agitation for their pension that hasn't been released for almost eight months.

The meagre amount--Rs 1,000 per month is also being denied and this has forced them to protest.

There are around 4,500 elderly women gas victims and they are facing extreme hardships, more so, after the lock down was announced earlier this year.

In view of the Coronavirus pandemic, women are not coming out in the form of rallies. There are no big assemblies. It has been decided that women would sit separately. In the first stage, women are sitting in Housing Board Colony, outside their houses.

The Gas Peedit Nirashrit Pension Bhogi Sangharsh Morcha (GPNPBSM) chief Balkrishna Namdeo has said that government must take a decision, else there will be hunger strike in the second phase and later the women would sit on fast unto death.

Meanwhile, the Bhopal Gas Peedit Sangharsh Sahyog Samiti convener Sadhna Karnik Pradhan has written a letter to the minister for providing treatment to the gas victims through alternative systems of medicine too, as traditional allopathic medicines are not having affect on several gas victims. 

They have no other source of income. These women who lost their husbands in the gas tragedy, also don't have the 'samagra id' and as a result, not getting ration, either. Most of these women are elderly and not able to run from pillar to post to tackle bureuacratic redtapism.

[Photo is for representational purpose]