Gas survivors denied smart cards on flimsy grounds

BHOPAL: Sudhir Tiwari, a survivor of the

Bhopal

gas disaster, had to go all the way to the Supreme Court monitoring committee chairman, Justice SC Agrawal, to get his

smart card

made, which would now enable him for a free treatment at Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre (BMHRC) and various gas relief hospitals of the

Madhya Pradesh

government.


Tiwari was earlier denied a smart card because name of his father in the court order-sheet awarding compensation to him was mentioned as TP Tiwari while his Aadhaar card showed his name as Tekari Prasad Tiwari.

BMHRC and its mini units, who are making smart cards for survivors of the gas disaster and their dependents, rejected his application on the ground of “name mismatch”. With certain additional documents, he submitted his application again but that too was rejected again on the ground “name not updated”.

Tiwari then wrote to monitoring committee chairman, who intervened in the matter and got his name registered for the smart card. He, however, is not the only gas survivor, who faced problems in getting his smart card because of some minor typing or clerical error in their documents (if abbreviating somebody’s name could be called an error), there are hundreds, who have been denied registration for the smart cards on various flimsy grounds.

In another such example, Muskan Bharani, who was known as Geeta Balwani before marriage, was also refused registration for her children’s “smart card” because of “name mismatch”. She was asked to get a notice regarding change of name published in the MP Gazette, which she did but her children were not registered for the smart card. After running from pillar to post, she approached Justice Agrawal on January 19 and he again intervened to get registration of her children for the smart card.

Both Tiwari and Bharani had to face problems in getting registration for “smart card” despite the fact that both of them had BMHRC identity number.

Member of the monitoring committee, Purnendu Shukla, when asked about complaints that registration for smart cards was being denied on flimsy ground, said “Yes, there are complaints and Justice Agrawal taking serious note of those complaints had ordered a probe as to who was responsible for it. Complainants often refer to a person, who deliberately creates problems for them.”

Nitin Bhatia, in-charge of registration for smart cards, when contacted refused there was any major problem as far as non-registration of gas disaster survivors on the basis of “spelling mistake” or “name mismatch” and said, “I can’t talk on the issue anymore because I am not entitled to talk to media”.

Convener of Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangthan Abdul Jabbar, said “Aadhaar card, voter ID card or even the second set of court’s order-sheet giving pro rata compensation to disaster survivors has their photos as well. There is no reason why they should be made to run from pillar to post for registration if the spelling of their name doesn’t tally with the name written on Aadhaar card.”