Corona Crisis: Bhopal Gas Victims Dying Of Neglect Is Shame

By L.S. Herdenia

BHOPAL: After tragic death of five gas victims the Madhya Pradesh government was forced to revoke its earlier order of reserving Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre (BMHRC) for Corona patients. Not only BMHRC was reserved for Corona patients but all the indoor patients were shifted to other hospitals or to their homes.

This arbitrary decision of the state government caused anger among gas victims and their families and also activists and NGOs who have been taking care of gas victims. Some of the activists immediately approached the Supreme Court. Supreme Court directed the petitioners to agitate before the state High Court. The High Court was to take up the matter on Monday (April 13) but due to reasons not known the High Court postponed the hearing. It was expected that the matter may come up on April 15. But meanwhile late night on April 14 the state government decided to revoke earlier order. The April 14 order reversed earlier decision designating BMHRC into a hospital for treatment of Covid-19 patients.

The decision was taken by the district administration after the death of another gas victim. Of the five Covid deaths in Bhopal all were gas victims.

The fresh state government order says BMHRC has been demoted as a Covid-19 treatment ‘health centre’ against the earlier dedicated hospital for treatment of Covid-19 patients.

In effect 5.74 lakh gas victims should now get regular treatment at the hospital. Almost all the in-patients in the 350-bed hospital were sent home earlier in March, when BMHRC was labelled a dedicated Corona-19 hospital. BMHRC would now have 40 beds for Covid patients and those in need of specialised treatment like ventilators would be referred to Chirayu Medical College.

In the last two weeks four of the five people who tested positive for Covid-19 and died, were linked to being victims of the gas disaster. BMHRC provides free treatment for people affected from the gas leak of 1984.

The BMCRC was specially built for the gas victims at the direction of the Supreme Court to provide gas victim the best possible medical treatment said N D Jayaprakash in a memorandum to the government. He is the convener of Bhopal Gas Peedith Sangrash Sahayog Samiti.

In a letter to the state government on March 23, Jayapraksh had demanded Union government to overturn the said decision of the government of MP. “Not because we are in any way trying to undermine the threat of corona virus. On the contrary, we are shocked by the complete insensitivity displayed by the government to the health needs and well being of the Bhopal gas victims since they continue to be the most vulnerable section of the Bhopal population at risk of Covid infection” he said.

The five gas victims survived an unseen killer, only to be felled by another 36 years later. In a twist of fate, they couldn’t even step into BMHRC – because it was taken over by the state government as a dedicated Covid-19 facility. All five died in private hospitals while BMHRC has not a single patient – Covid or otherwise.

The latest to die was 73 year old Ashfaq Nadvi on Tuesday. He belonged to Jehangirabad locality as did the third and fourth victims – Imran and Rajkumar Yadav.

The first gas victim to die of coronavirus in Bhopal was 56 year old Naresh Khatik on April 7. He had lifelong respiratory disorder due to exposure to the killer gas, so did the second victim, Jagannath Maithal, 77. They lived in Ibrahimpura and ChowkiImambada. These two localities and Jehangirabad have high percentage of gas victims.

Following Yadav’s death on Monday, the district administration began sanitising all of Jehangirabad and screening 50,000 to 60,000 residents of the area. On Tuesday, sanitisation was on when news came of Nadvi’s death.

“We kept reminding the state government and the district administration to pay special attention to gas victims as hundreds of them already have lung and kidney ailments, Many have cancer, diabetes and heart problems, but no one paid any heed. You can now see what is happening“ Rachna Dhingra of Bhopal Group of Information and Action, an NGO of gas disaster victims said.

Purnendu Shukla, member of the Supreme Court appointed monitoring committee also took the matter with the state government but no heed was paid.

Meanwhile, Indore and Bhopal continued to cause concern with the increase of Corona patients at a fast rate. Indore alone accounted for the bulk of the new cases – 96 in all. It’s count now stands at 417. Bhopal has 18 more corona patients taking its tally to 158.

Tikamgarh is the latest addition in MP’s covid map. As many a 24 districts now have corona virus patients but Indore and Bhopal account for over 80% of them.

Ten people in MP’s Khandwa district tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday – nine of them being primary contacts of four members of Jamat who were detected with the virus on April 9.

MP’s health officials continue to take a hit in the battle against Covid-19. On Tuesday the chief medical and health officer of Barwani district tested positive and the collector had his swab sample taken and went into quarantine. Four IAS officers of the health department are among health staff across the state being infected with the virus. (IPA Service)