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Pirangut fire: 20 days after incident, families await compensation
The kin of the 17 deceased workers in the June 7 fire incident at SVS Acqua Technologies Company in Pirangut are still awaiting financial compensation from the company, state, and Central government
The kin of the 17 deceased workers in the June 7 fire incident at SVS Acqua Technologies Company in Pirangut are still awaiting financial compensation from the company, state, and Central government.
“The company gave us cheques for ₹10 lakh compensation through insurance of each deceased person. In our case, I made both my children as the nominees. The company has given us all four cheques worth ₹2.5 lakh - two that have to be submitted on July 4 and two in December. But we doubt these cheques will get encashed,” said Ulhas Gonde, who lost his wife in the fire.
While the relatives are struggling with the compensation, the company has plans of staying in operation for a long time in the future. Either that or the company is making false promises to the deceased people’s relatives.
“Someone sent a message saying the company has promised one family member per deceased with employment in their company on a permanent basis. ESI (insurance) letter has to be filled and submitted in the insurance company’s office in Baner. We got a call saying the cheques are ready, but we have not yet found it within us to go back there and collect,” said Somnath Ghodake who lost his elder sister in the fire.
The local administration, on the other hand, is yet to receive the amount from the state government which had promised ₹5 lakh to the next of kin of all deceased in the fire accident. There is also no update from the Prime Minister’s disaster relief fund which had promised ₹2 lakh to the next of kin of each deceased.
“We have received ₹1 lakh per person, but we have not issued cheques yet. The remaining amount got sanction last week and we are hoping that it will reflect in the bank account by this week. The cheques for the total amount of ₹5 lakh will be issued immediately afterwards. For the Prime minister’s national relief fund, we have sent all the required information but have not heard back from them,” said Abhay Chavan, tehsildar of Mulshi.
The paperwork for land acquisition for a fire station, for which the Mulshi industrial association and the Pune metropolitan region development authority (PMRDA) have been making efforts, is also yet to see the light of day.
