Karnataka - Mangalore   

Pravasi Sangham threatens to boycott Air India

SEEKING CLARIFICATION:Members of the Mangalore air crash victims' families and Pravasi Sangham in a discussion with Airport Director M.R. Vasudeva (second from left) in Mangalore on Tuesday.

MANGALORE: Pravasi Sangham, an organisation of non-resident Indians (NRIs) of Kerala, on Tuesday threatened to boycott Air India across the world if the compensation process for the May 22 air crash is not reviewed.

Its members staged a demonstration against the present process at the Mangalore airport.

P.K. Abdullah, president of the organisation, said, “Through our various affiliate organisations, our influence spreads to over five crore NRIs. We will cripple the airline if our demands are not met.”

However, H.D. Nanavati, lead solicitor handling the case for Air India, stressed that he and his firm (Mulla and Mulla) were working within the confines of the Carriage by Air Act, 1972 and the amendments made in 1999.

‘Misunderstanding'

Addressing presspersons on Tuesday, Mr. Nanavati attributed the contentions raised by a large section of the heirs to a “misunderstanding” arising out of the “selective reading” of the provisions within the Montreal Convention that refers to a sum of U.S. $1,00,000 (around Rs. 70 lakh) as compensation. “This sum of Rs. 70 lakh is not a minimum or a maximum limit for compensation,” he said.

He said that the law prescribes the compensation amount to be fixed based on the damage sustained. “The idea is to place the family of the deceased, as far as possible, in the same financial situation as they would have enjoyed had the crash not happened,” he said, and added, “I cannot just dole out money. I have to justify the amount paid.”

He pointed out that what was being paid now was not insurance but a compensation for pecuniary (financial) loss sustained by the dependents of the deceased. However, he also said that the process of fixing compensation, despite all the legal provisions, was “not a mathematical exercise”.

Responding to contentions that it was not possible to secure income certificates for some of the deceased, who were employed in West Asia, he said, “They (heirs) can even give us bank statements to prove the income of the deceased.”

On the issue of the user development fee being collected from passengers embarking from here, he said the fee collected from domestic travellers was less than what was collected from overseas passengers. Seeking to reverse the fee structure, he said air travel is a luxury for domestic travellers, whereas those headed to West Asia were mostly from poorer sections who travel in search of employment.

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