Six years may seem enough for wounds to heal. But the families of the hospital employees, who were shot dead on the night of November 26, 2008 continue to suffer from apathy at the hands of the state government.
Sunanda Shinde (43) and Karuna Waghela (38), wives of deceased ward boys Bhagan and Thakur at state-run Gokuldas Tejpal Hospital in CST as well as Sushila Ughade (48) and Sunanda Narkar (47), wives of security gaurds Babban and Bhanu at state-run Cama Hospital in CST say that the promised compensation has been denied to them. They are leading a hand to mouth existence and finding it difficult to raise their children.
In a text message reply to dna, Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadanvis said, "I will look into it. I have forwarded the concerned matter to both the ministers in the finance and medical education department.
After the terrorist attack, the state revenue department had issued a government resolution (GR) which instructed that families of all state employees who died during the attacks should continue to be paid the salaries of their deceased kin, however the state medical education department has failed to implement the GR.
Bhagan Shinde who had worked for seventeen years at GT Hospital used to draw up to Rs 18,000 a month. While ideally Sunanda, his wife should have been paid this amount every month, due to non-implementation of the GR, she does not receive the money that is rightfully belongs to her.
In the case of Sushila,whose husband was killed in the attack, son Vilas was provided a job at Cama Hospital as a ward boy. Sadly, Vilas died due to tuberculosis last year. Sushila has been running from pillar to post to secure employment for her elder son in place of Vilas but to no avail. "We have been shunted from one government department to another and there is no ray of hope," said Sushila.
The women find it extremely difficult to run the house. Karuna, wife of Thakur has to raise three children single handedly. Niraj (10), Dhaval (12) and Roshni (14), Karuna and Thakur's children are all in school. "Niraj saw his father being shot at by the terrorists as he hid in the bathroom. He is traumatized to this date. My husband has served water to Kasab and Abu Ismail before he was shot dead," said Karuna. "We are not being paid our husband's salaries. We have been allotted flats by the state but paying the maintenance costs us Rs 4500 a month. I barely earn Rs 9500 a month in my job. We are struggling to live. We have knocked at doors of the Governor, various ministries and politicians but have been offered only hollow assurances and lip service."
"The compensation files are moving to and fro between finance and medical education since the past six years," said a senior bureaucrat from the medical education department.
While Sudhir Mungantiwar is the minister of finance in the state, Vinod Tawde is the minister for medical education.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}