'Give jobs, 50 lakh to kin of 3 nurses who died in CSMT bridge collapse'

MUMBAI: A week after the death of three GT Hospital nurses in the Himalaya foot over-bridge collapse near Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT), their union has demanded that the compensation granted to the families should be on a par with the ex gratia given to employees who had died in the 26/11 terror attacks.

The Maharashtra State Nursing Federation (MSNF) said the nurses have families to support and deserve much more than Rs 5 lakh. A delegation of the union had also met BMC commissioner Ajoy Mehta to put forward their demands, which include a job in the municipal corporation for the next of the kin and a compensation of Rs 50 lakh.

Other unions too have written to chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and medical education minister Girish Mahajan and presented their case that nurses Apoorva Prabhu, Bhakti Shinde and Ranjana Tambe were the main earning members of their families. Prabhu is survived by her husband, son Ganesh (12) and daughter Chinmayee (10), while Shinde i s survived by her husband and son Omkar (13). Tambe, who was single and differently-abled, was supporting her widowed mother.

The federation said that all three nurses had over 10-12 years of service tenure left. "The compensation of Rs 5 lakh was their salary for five or six months. The authorities must pay them the salaries they would have earned till retirement and also extend them retirement benefits," said Suman Tilekar, president of MSNF. She added that the families of four class IV staffers of GT and Cama hospitals were given Rs 25 lakh each after the 2008 terror attacks. "Some were also given a house and job for the next of kin," Tilekar added.

A demand for better compensation has also come from the families of injured who have been promised Rs 50,000 and free treatment at state-run hospitals. However, most have suffered multiple injuries are likely to take at least a year to heal. "I am the main breadwinner for the family. My father too is hospitalised. Is Rs 50,000 enough for lost wages?" asked Mohammed Athar, a mechanic, who suffered fractures on both legs and also lost a finger in the CSMT foot over-bridge collapse.