1 yr on, time stands still for Mumbai blast victims

Mumbai: Last one year passed in a flash for 40-year-old Rekha Jain, or has it? In fact, time has stood still for her ever since the serial blasts in Mumbai snatched away her 21-year-old son, Amit Jain, on that fateful day exactly a year back.

"Only 10 minutes before the blast, he had spoken to me from his cellphone from the train to tell me that he was on his way home. I told him that I was going to the market and his meal was kept in the kitchen," Rekha Jain recalls. And within the next few minutes, Rekha Jain had heard that big bang sound on the railway tracks in the Mira Road-Bhayander section, which passes by her house.

Little did she realise then what would that mean to her. "I didn't imagine it to be a bomb blast and didn't think my son would be on that train." Rekha Jain is yet to come to terms with that loss. "I can't believe that my son is no more."

For Abhijit Pangle, his elder brother Ajit was like his father as the Pangle siblings had lost their father very early. "On that fateful day, Ajit was to go to the Siddhivinayak Temple at Dadar before returning home. He left his office early, but for some reason he skipped his plans of visiting the temple and boarded the train for home."

When he did not reach home, Abhijit went out to look for him at 1:30 am. "I searched for him the whole night and found his dead body at a hospital at Bhayander," Abhijit recalls.

Dinesh Singh's 21-year-old son Amit is still alive, but he is in coma in a hospital without any visible signs of improvement. "Amit was among those injured in the blast that took place between Mira Road and Bhayander. He has been in coma since that day. The state has taken care of his medical treatment at Jaslok Hospital till date, but I would like to see some result at the end of one year," Singh says.

For Singh, the compensation and the job offered to him by the authorities mean very little. After all, what else can compensate him other than his son's life!

The Mumbai serial blasts of July 11, 2006 were not just a bleak reminder of how terror lurks at every corner of the country today, it is also a story of irreparable losses, unending sufferings and a nightmare several thousand people are reliving day after day. It's a scar on hundreds of lives and will remain so for many more days to come.

One year is a long time in time measure, but the hundreds of people affected by the blasts that rocked Mumbai exactly a year back are still grappling with the trauma and shock caused by one of the country's worst terror attacks.

Official statistics state 187 people were killed and 900 injured in the blasts, but that reveal little of the problems that haunt many victims. "Amit can acknowledge what we say with his eyes but doctors say nothing more can be done for him beyond what is already being done," Singh said.

He is hopeful that specialists from abroad or the country can help Amit regain at least part of his body's faculties. "We can't shift him out of the hospital since the state will stop funding his treatment. We continue to appeal for some foreign doctors to come and see if something can be done," Singh said.

The seven blasts had occurred almost simultaneously during the evening peak hour on July 11, 2006 in first class coaches of trains near Matunga, Mahim, Bandra, Khar, Jogeshwari, Borivali and Mira Road stations.

Rajaram Chavan lost his leg in the blast at Borivali, yet he somehow manages to eke out a living today. He wishes he had the benefit of a government job.

"I continue to work in the same private firm where I worked earlier but it is not as stable as a government job. I am always scared of providing for my wife and child if I lose the job," said Chavan, who was earlier employed as a watchman.

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"I don't think I meet the government's criteria for disability, which is why I did not get the job. I am now awaiting the compensation from the railway claims tribunal," Chavan, who has been fitted with a prosthetic leg, said.

Suhas Choughule, another victim, said it was hard for him to arrange the surgery he needed to mend his ears as he could not afford it, being the only earning member of his family.

"I cannot work or sleep properly due to my ears, which hurt every night. I have been told the surgery to mend them will cost about Rs 50,000, but how am I to manage that much money when the state has given me insufficient compensation?" he asked.

Railway authorities said a total of over Rs 12 crore has been distributed as compensation for the kin of the 187 people who died in the blasts and that almost all those who were injured have been given relief.

"We also suffered huge damage due to the blasts. Despite that, we aided those affected by the blasts by giving jobs to the next of kin of the dead and those who were badly injured," a spokesperson for Western Railways said.

However, former MP Kirit Somaiya, who has taken up the issue of compensation, claimed that the help given by the railways is insufficient. He also accused the state government of not keeping promises it made to the victims of the blasts.

"The state government has not kept its promise of paying relief to all the victims of the blasts. In many cases, it has tried to save money by classifying those with major injuries as persons with minor injuries," Somaiya alleged.

According to Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, the state government has provided compensation to all the victims of the 7/11 blasts. "If any instance comes to light of someone not having been paid as yet, this would be taken care of," Deshmukh said.

However, he acknowledged that there were cases in which the Railways have so far not given jobs to the relatives of victims. Somaiya also claimed the compensation was insufficient for many people who suffered relatively minor injuries but lost their sources of livelihood.

According to him, the state paid only about 880 of the victims and promises of giving jobs to the next of kin have not been properly implemented by the railways.

"This is a cruel joke on the victims who have suffered enough already," said Somaiya, who has approached the state Human Rights Commission to seek action against the state government.

The railways pointed out that it had encouraged people to bring their grievances to the notice of the Railway Claims Tribunal, which has received 513 applications and settled 211. However, Somaiya claimed the tribunal has not been meeting often enough and has not settled the claims of the injured.