Two organisations working for victims of the Bhopal Gas tragedy have in a joint letter to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, drew his attention to numerous pending tasks which need to be undertaken for the victims.

Convenor of Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangathan, Abdul Jabbar and N D Jayaprakash, Co-Convenor of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Sangharsh Sahyog Samiti, in a 12-page letter, yesterday to Chouhan listed in detail all the problems that were still being faced by the gas victims.

The problems listed by the two include faults in the house-to-house survey conducted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), computerisation of medical records and payment of compensation.

Jabbar and Jayaprakash said in the letter that the two had already requested the Chief Minister on May 30 last year to set up a special court to handle the criminal case relating to the disaster.

They said the TISS survey was discontinued after the state government forced it to abandon its work and because of this, detailed proformas were prepared for only one-fourth of the affected population.

"Under the circumstances, it would be extremely helpful if the state government, even at this late stage, allowed TISS access to the said proformas so that the same could be processed and analysed fruitfully in the interest of the gas victims," Jabbar and Jayaprakash said.

The two organisations said that although the state government's decision to institute a fresh commission of inquiry under the chairmanship of Justice S L Kochar kindled hope among the gas victims and their supporters, the scope and ambit of the inquiry was very limited which was greatly disappointing.

"If at all the fresh inquiry has to be meaningful, the scope and ambit of the inquiry has to be sufficiently enlarged so that the intent and purpose of the fresh inquiry becomes much clearer," they said.

Jabbar and Jayaprakash said that the utter negligent attitude of the state government as well as the Centre towards the cause of the gas victims was the abysmal failure to issue health booklets to all of them.

They said if the booklets had been issued, they would have been very useful in terms of recording the medical history of the victims and this may include investigations and treatment rendered from time to time.

The two organisations said there was a lot of problems about the figures of those who died due to the disaster and those who were affected by it.

They said that early steps immediately needed to be taken to arrive at the correct figures of those affected by the disaster.