Dharna Blog

August 14, Day 19

Today at the dharna site, our vigil continued, damp as the afternoon air. I spoke to Abdul Rafi, fondly known to everyone as Mamu, about his story. He has been with the struggle for the full 26 years, and was 13 when the gas disaster hit in 1984. He lived with his mother, and worked to make ends meet as a laborer, including washing bottles for a while at the Union Carbide factory. At this stage of his narrative some disagreement erupted as to whether he could have possibly been employed at that age at a factory that nominally employed only adults.

Dharna Blog

August 13, Day 18

The dharna site was quiet today, the mood steady but resigned to waiting. Meanwhile Rasheeda bi, Shalini, Rachna and Sathyu were able to get around 20-25 more endorsements of our petition by parliamentarians, and the personal secretaries of some MPs helped us access other parliamentarians. It was hard to figure out how to go about finding parliamentarians whom they could talk to - so they approached all sorts of people- secretaries, security guards, party office staff and so on to help us recognise parliamentarians. So now we have a total number of 53 endorsements from MPs representing 18 different parties. We hope to have a lot more endorsements from the CPI as Mr. D. Raja is circulating our petition amongst his party members.

PRESS CONFERENCE

What: Bhopalis to conclude dharna; 62 MPs from 19 Political Parties Write to PM

Significant progress on major demands

When: 18 August, 2010. 3 p.m.

Where: Jantar Mantar dharna sthal

Background:

More than 60 MPs spanning 19 political parties have endorsed a letter to the PM urging him to resolve all pending rehabilitation issues related to Bhopal by the 26th Anniversary in December 2010. With this assurance, and in light of the steps taken by the Governments of India and Madhya Pradesh to address some of the key demands of the Bhopal dharna, the five organisers of the July-August, 2010, dharna will end their protest and return to Bhopal tomorrow. A presentation on the status of various demands, and a copy of the Letter from MPs to the PM will be made.

For more information, contact: Rachna Dhingra: 09826167369 or Shalini: 9958924989