Five organisations working among the survivors of the Union Carbide disaster, launched their campaign to educate the gas-affected voters in the city about the NOTA option of rejecting all candidates in the forthcoming elections.
While talking to mediapersons here on Wednesday, Rashida Bee, President of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari Sangh said that the two principal parties, BJP and Congress have equally denied the gas victims their legal rights to adequate compensation and both have provided support to the offending multinationals – Union Carbide and Dow Chemical.
President of Bhopal Gas Peedit Nirashrit Pension Bhogi Sangharsh Morcha, Balkrishna Namdeo said that the BJP and the Congress have mainly been in power at the State and the Centre in the last nearly three decades.
The forthcoming elections are an opportunity for the over 8 hundred thousand voters from gas-affected families to oppose the betrayal by both these political parties.
Rachna Dhingra of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action said that in the light of documentary evidence of harm caused to the interests of the gas-affected people by both the political parties, the NOTA option was best suited for the gas-affected people.
“We will distribute pamphlets, address public meetings and present the charges against the Governments under both the parties and tell our people about the NOTA option”, said Nawab Khan, President of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha.
Safreen Khan of Children Against Dow Carbide said that many second generation survivors are angry at the treatment meted out to their families by Governments run by both the parties. “It is indeed sad and telling that our first step in to democracy is the NOTA button.” she said.