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Mumbai train blasts victims feel let down

Meena Menon

They are running from pillar to post to get their due compensation

MUMBAI: A month away from the first anniversary of the serial train blasts on Mumbai's suburban locals, its victims are still suffering acutely from body injuries, and running from pillar to post to get their due compensation.

With hope

At a meeting organised on Monday by former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Kirit Somaiya, victims narrated their stories to a packed hall and expected some redress from the government. Jacinta Falcao's brother Allwyn D' Cunha cannot use both his hands which were severely damaged in the train blast.

"The Railways said they would bear all the expenses. My brother had to have multiple surgeries but after the first one, the hospital told me that the Railways are refusing to pay the second claim," she said.

Jacinta who has even written to Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav said that she received no reply.

"We are middle class people. The cost of my brother's surgeries totals Rs. 19 lakh, I have paid only Rs. 10 lakh so far," she said.

Her brother Allwyn, 40, used to work as a manager with a private company.

Today he cannot use his hands or travel to work. He has survived thanks to support from his employer and has been on leave for most of the time.

"Should I run after filing claims or look after my brother," asked Jacinta.

Tribunal sittings

The special bench of the Railway Claims Tribunal has held only four sittings since last year. Vijay Amin, who was given up for dead in the blasts, said that he had lost his hearing and his hand has five or six operations already.

Leave denied

Though he has been working for a nationalised bank for 25 years, they did not have the courtesy to sanction him special leave for six months.

"Today I have to take a loan for my daughter's education because I have not been paid for so many months," he said.

Kamal Khemka, who lost his hand in the blasts, now functions with the help of an artificial limb. "I applied for a job in the Railways but they told me that I don't qualify after calling me for an interview," he said.

Chandrakant Dalvi who was injured in the Mahim blast has lost most of his hearing. An advocate by profession, Dalvi says he is deaf in one ear and has lost 65 per cent of his hearing in the other ear. This was accepted by the Railway doctors. Yet when he went to pursue his claim before the Tribunal, the same Railways told him that he had lost 65 per cent hearing in both ears.

"They tried to tell me that I was faking my disability to claim more money," he said. He said that the Railways had manipulated records and were not giving him his dues.

"Humiliating"

Deven Rathod, a central excise employee who lost his right hand, says that it was humiliating to fight for money. "I have lost my hand, can't hear and had huge holes in my body. Even today I have foreign bodies stuck in various parts of my body," he said. He has managed to get a prosthetic limb with the help of a voluntary organisation. Young Tushar Rawal's hearing before the Tribunal is now in August.

"I have had 12 surgeries and have plates in my hands and wires in my fingers. I have spent Rs.10 lakhs already and am on leave without pay for the last ten months. There is no transparency in the proceedings of claiming compensation," he said.

No end to woes

Sunita Jaiswal lost her husband in the blast and is left to look after her two babies. "I have got a job but I cannot leave my children and go for a job. One of them has to have a heart surgery," she wept. A total of 499 cases have been filed before the Railway Claims Tribunal of which 174 have been disposed of till now. About 187 people were killed and 890 injured in the blasts.

Former MP Ram Naik said that the Railway Minister should come to Mumbai and listen to the grievances of the victims and the Railways and the state government must bring out a status paper within 15 days on the amount of compensation paid and other details.

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