Homage paid to Bhopal gas tragedy victims

Indians paid homage to the gas tragedy victims on Thursday at an all religion prayer meeting held here. One of the world's  deadliest industrial disasters, the Bhopal gas tragedy killed thousands of people and caused many more to suffer.

Bhopal has long cast a shadow over India and how it handles the challenges of a 1.1 billion, largely poor population, improve health and safety regulations, and a fast-growing economy. The survivors of the disaster have been struggling on their own to urge the Indian government to punish the culprits behind the incident. Their voice also found support in state chief Shivraj Singh Chauhan, who urged the federal government to bring the culprits to book.

"I appeal to the Indian government to bring them to justice who are responsible for such a massive tragedy and are out on bail. They should be presented in the Indian court and they should be definitely punished for destroying so many lives," said Chauhan.

In the early hours of December 3, 1984, around 40 metric tonnes of toxic methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas leaked into the atmosphere and was carried by the wind to the surrounding slums. Dow Chemical, which now owns Union Carbide, denies any responsibility saying it bought the company a decade after Union Carbide had settled its liabilities to the Indian government in 1989 by paying $470 million for the victims.

The government says around 3,500 died as a result of the disaster. Activists however calculate that 25,000 people died in the immediate aftermath and the years that followed.

Sicknesses range from cancer, blindness, respiratory difficulties and neurological disorders, female reproductive disorders as well as birth defects among children born to affected women. But activists and lawyers representing the affected populations from the nearby slums say the tragedy of this disaster is that it continues unabated.