HC reprimands Centre for inadequate report on medical treatment for Bhopal gas tragedy victims

The Chief Justice of MP high court sought a 100 percent compliance of all the inadequacies pointed out by a Supreme Court-appointed Monitoring Committee.

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The Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangathan, and the Bhopal Group for Information and Action had filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court in 1998 seeking appropriate and sufficient medical care, and research facilities for the Bhopal gas victims. Consequently, the Supreme Court had constituted a Monitoring Committee to inform them about the medical care facilities at various hospitals being run by the state and union government.

The matter was transferred to the MP High Court who were given the responsibility to oversee the issue by the Supreme Court in 2012.

In a hearing, the petitioners' counsel and the high court's amicus, Naman Nagarath pointed out that in an affidavit filed earlier this month by the Director, BMHRC, have not addressed a single concern raised by the Monitoring Committee in its 16th, 17th and 18th Quarterly Reports.

The Quarterly reports show the pathetic state of medical care at the 350-bed super speciality hospital being run by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Department of Health Research, Government of India. The report stated that no progress has been made towards improving the functioning of the BMHRC after its control was given to the ICMR.

The positions of Professors and Associate Professors have been lying vacant for the past 10 years. Along with that, the crucial departments of Nephrology, Neurology, Gastromedicine, and Surgical Oncology have remained non-functional due to the lack of specialists and doctors. The report mentioned the non-availability of various crucial medicines and the procurement of the required equipment is yet to happen.

Rachna Dhingra, the representative of Bhopal Group for Information and Action presented some facts regarding the condition of BMHRC and sought directions for improving its condition in the high court. She expressed satisfaction and hoped that the situations would change vis-à-vis the crucial medical care needs of the survivors. She also appreciated the monitoring committee for providing an accurate status of affairs before the MP High Court.

Subsequently, after going through the submissions, the chief justice directed the union government to file its compliance report on all the concerns and recommendations made by the Monitoring Committee around January 10, 2021, reports The Leaflet.

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