BMC denies insurance cover to Mumbai firefighters

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has spent crores to provide the city’s 2,350 firemen with sophisticated equipment for firefighting, but ironically the same civic body hasn’t insured lives of these firemen.

The civic administration has refused to pay insurance premium for the firemen.

According to BMC chief Swadhin Kshatriya, paying premium to insurance companies would turn out to be more expensive than paying compensation to the firemen, or their family in case of a mishap.

The civic administration turned down even mayor Shraddha Jadhav’s demand of having insurance cover for the life of firemen, stating that it was not feasible and practical. Jadhav had said that the firemen were working for the city and were saving people by endangering their own lives.

“In some cases, they even lose their life or become permanently disabled. In such cases, the compensation that the fireman’s family gets is very low. The BMC has to provide firmen with insurance cover like life insurance, mediclaim, or an individual accident insurance policy,” Jadhav said. “If the firemen get insurance cover, their families will get a substantial amount in case of an unfortunate incident.”

However, Kshatriya, in his reply to the mayor’s demand said that the BMC was doing everything possible from its end to provide firemen help in case of an accident. If firemen are injured while dousing fire, the BMC always provides them with free medical treatment in civic hospitals, said Kshatriya.

In case of death or permanent disability, the BMC compensates the deceased fireman’s family as per the BMC’s rules. The compensation is based on calculations involving the fireman’s age, his basic salary, etc. The minimum amount of compensation paid is Rs10 lakh and the maximum is Rs18 lakh.

According to the civic chief, usually there are very few fatal accidents involving firemen. “However, in cases where firemen do lose their lives, or are badly injured, it is practical and advisable to pay compensation to their families. The compensation amount is much lower than the insurance premium that has to be paid every month,” said Kshatriya 

According to a fireman, who did not wish to be named, incidents of fire in the city have been on the rise and the firemen need to be well equipped to deal with them. “The city has witnessed haphazard development and lack of open spaces has made fire-fighting difficult. Moreover, in the past five years, the number of fire incidents has escalated by about 20%,” said the fireman.