Click to play videoMumbai: Moist eyes, bandaged fingers and artificial limbs, this is the reality most of the survivors of the 7/11 blasts live with everyday. And it is also a constant reminder of the trauma they endured last year.
The survivors who were unknown to each other till now, have come together to fight for their rightful compensation from the railway claims tribunal.
And by doing this they don’t just share their woes but also rally together against government apathy.
“They should not ask us to prove everything. Can’t they see our injuries? It is very humiliating,” says a victim, Dheeraj Rathod.
“They ask people to show whether their hands are cut or not. They ask us to remove shoes and show our legs. This is the kind of mental harassment that is going on,” adds another victim, Suraj Jha.
A special bench of the railway claims tribunal may have been set up just for the 7/11 blasts, but work has progressed at a snail's pace.
Out of the 1077 cases, only 499 victims have filed claims of which only 174 have been settled.
And of the 235 identified for employment, less than 15 have got jobs with the railways.
“The tribunal has had only four sittings in the last one year. They should work for all 22 days in a month. If they continue, they can settle 600 cases and it can be solved,” says former MP, BJP, Kirit Somaiya.
While the actual act of terrorism may be long over, the subsequent insensitive handling of compensation cases by government authorities has been more humiliating for the 7/11 survivors.
For Mumbai, life may have come back to normalcy, but for the survivors the battle for justice is far from over.
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