Widows of gas tragedy victims stage protest for pension
| Date :02-Oct-2020 |
Gas tragedy survivors staging protest for pension.
Staff Reporter ;
On Thursday Gas survivors staged protest with ‘Khali Thali’ showcasing their financial constrain during COVID-19. They said that the widows need the pension during the pandemic as they are under severe financial crisis.
Due to corona lockdown they are unable to meet their daily chores and to add to it now there pension is also been stopped since many months. The pension was ceased earlier from April 2016 to November 2017, but initiated again after being prompted by activists .The widows need the pension during the pandemic as they are under severe financial crisis said Balkrishna Namdeo of Gas Peedit Nirashrit Pension Bhogi Sangharsh Morcha. The 2011-2012 annual report of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation Department said the pension would be lifelong.
There are as many as four thousand other women, whose husbands died in the methyl isocyanate leak from a pesticide plant have been awaiting widows’ pension since December 2019. If the cessation of pension, initiated in 2011, wasn’t enough, the lockdown has also nibbled away at livelihoods of their children and grandchildren and spiked food prices, pushing families deeper into poverty. They have submitted memorandum to officials but no one of taking substantial measures to resolve problem, they claimed.