The failure and escapist policy of the administration and Air India in consoling the 158 families of the victims of India’s worst ever aviation tragedy in recent past, is still glaringly evident even a month after the catastrophic Mangalore crash.
A total of 158 people, including all the six crew members, aboard the Air India Express flight IX-812, were killed when the Boeing 737-800 aircraft from Dubai overshot the runway and plunged into a ravine just a couple of kilometers away from the Mangalore International Airport on a wet Saturday morning. Eight passengers had survived the crash, with all of them receiving treatments at various hospitals before being discharged.
A few days ago Air India said that it has disbursed the interim compensation of Rs. 14.06 crore in total for 159 passengers including all eight injured. This compensation was paid at the rate of Rs 2 lakh to each survivor, Rs 5 lakh for every deceased child and Rs 10 lakh each for every deceased adult.
In addition, Air India facilitated the payment of Rs 3.06 crores as compensation from Prime Minister’s Relief Fund. An amount of Rs 2 lakh each was paid to the 151 death cases from the Fund and Rs 50,000 each given to the 8 survivors.
However the preliminary compensation from Air India and union government has not reached all the families. The reason that has been cited is that the families concerned have still not furnished the relevant documents.
The Union and State Governments had given umpteen assurances on providing adequate compensation to the families of the air crash victims. But even a month after the tragedy, the aggrieved families are made to wait for the compensation announced by the state government.
After four long weeks, the state government said that it has released a total of Rs. 216 lakh from Chief Minister’s relief fund for the families of the 108 Karnataka origin victims of last month’s aviation disaster. But, the sources from the office of deputy commissioner on Tuesday, June 22 said that the distribution of relief cheques may take few more days as they too require the necessary documents for the purpose.
The initial promise of Air India that each mourning family would get upto Rs 76 lakhs of compensation as per International Aviation insurance regulations in addition to the compensation of state and union government which had released an ‘interim relief of Rs. 2 lakh each (All these almost totalled to Rs. 80 lakhs) has been already forgotten.
When contacted, the officials of Air India said that the completed forms for obtaining final air crash compensation from Air India along with necessary documents should be submitted by the victims’ families to the attorneys Mulla & Mulla at their Mumbai office. But, the tougher procedures to get this compensation are irritating the families. In the meantime, allegations are being heard that the Air India by distributing interim relief soon after the crash, has tried to mislead the families.
The state government has maintained a conspicuous silence over the demand of local leaders to open a separate cell in Mangalore to help the families of the air crash victims to secure all relevant documents that are required to avail the compensation. Presently, the families are running from pillar to post in Bangalore and Mysore for the documents concerned.
The woes and agonies of victims’ families are not confined just to their fight for compensation. The promise by the authorities of Air India, that they will not desert the kith and kin of the victims until they get the justice proved to be mere assurance as many family members are still struggling to get the recovered belongings and baggage of their demised kith and kin.
Imthiyaz Ahmed from Gangolli says all his efforts to get the belongings of his daughter Niha Imthiyaz, and his other relatives who died in the crash, proved futile. “I repeatedly called Air India authorities to collect the luggage, only to get a negative response. It seems that they are deliberately delaying the process. Now, I have to fly to Dubai for my work in a week’s time or so. If we go, who will identify these baggages here?”, Imthiyaz questions, expressing his helplessness.
To add salt to the injury of the distressed families, there are reports that many agents are entering the scene under the guise of NGOs with the intention of grabbing commission from grieving families in return to helping them to procure the whole compensation. But, the Air India officials say that they do not have any information about this development.
Authorities should not forget that many of the victims’ families are still overwhelmed with sorrow as they even failed to get at least the dead bodies of their beloved ones to undertake final rites. Can anyone forget the day when 12 victims’ bodies were buried unidentified in an isolated ground before the eyes of the helpless families?
On the other hand, the survivors of the crash have not completely recovered from the trauma so far. “I have aches and pains all over my body. I still get nightmares about the crash while sleeping,” says Usman, one of the eight survivors. Ismail Puthur, who was discharged from the hospital just three days ago, is still being treated for slip disc he sustained during the crash.
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