Rajasthan: Fire victims yet to get Deora's 'compensation'

Jaipur: It has been almost a year that a huge fire engulfed Jaipur's Indian Oil Corporation(IOC) depot in Sitapura Industrial Area but the families of the victims are yet to get the ex-gratia payment of `10 lakh announced by Union minister of petroleum and natural gas Murali Deora.

Accusing the minister of cheating, the victim families have now forwarded a letter to the President of India requesting intervention and justice. In all, 11 people died in the October 29 fire last year which continued for several days. Six of the deceased were employees of the IOC alone. Families of none of these have received the ex-gratia amount.

"It is almost a year since the incident took place. All six families of IOC employees are waiting for ex-gratia compensation," Savita Saroha, wife of deceased IOC official Swetketu Saroha, said.

Interestingly, in a letter addressed to one advocate of victims, the petroleum ministry had responded that the ex-gratia payment of `10 lakh, in addition to the compensation offered by the state government, was announced by the IOC and not by the minister on October 30, when Deora and senior officials visited the site of accident.

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"It may be noted that the honourable minister has neither announced nor made any commitment to pay any compensation as stated in the news-paper/newsletters..." the letter dated April 13, 2010 reads. This letter from the undersecretary Lal Chhandama reads that "the ex-gratia announced has already been paid to the affected families of the persons who had lost their lives in the fire incident including Savita Saroha and others." Saroha, however, said that she had received the settlement amount towards the salary of about 100 months and other allowances to be paid by the IOC as per the service terms. "Ex-gratia compensation is not part of it," she said, adding that similar was the case of other families.  An IOC official, however, maintained that the employees have been paid adequately. "The `10 lakh ex-gratia compensation was meant for the families of the deceased who were not employees of the IOC. The company has compensated the bereaved families of the IOC employees suitably and adequately as per the IOC compensation scheme," said a spokesperson of the IOC who did not wish to be named.  

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