Mangalore air crash: Kerala CM resents delay in solatium payment

Mangalore air crash: Kerala CM resents delay in solatium payment

Mangalore Today News Network

September 25: Kerala Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan urged the Centre to take urgent steps to provide compensation at the international standard to the families of those killed in air crash at Mangalore airport on May 22, which included 54 Keralaites. In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Achuthanandan said as per the Montreal Convention,the families of the victims were entitiled to Rs 70 lakh each.

Though the Centre had initially promised that the bereaved families would be adequately compensated, what could be learned later was that Air India was trying to go back on this and work out the solatium by factoring in the income profile of each of the victims.

Most of the 168 passengers killed in the air tragedy, espeically the Keralites, were those working on low wages in the Gulf countries. If the compensation was made on Air India’s norms, their families would be getting only a meagre amount, he said.

So it was important that the Prime Minister intervened in the matter to ensure that the affected families received compensation at the internationally accepted rates, Achuthanandan added.