Mumbai barge tragedy: FSUI seeks speedy judicial inquiry, ‘suitable’ compensation

Mumbai, June 9

The Forward Seamen’s Union of India (FSUI) has sought “suitable” compensation for the families of the victims of the Mumbai barge tragedy during the cyclone Tauktae that hit the city last month, besides demanding a high-level and speedy judicial inquiry into the incident.

Affiliated to the All India Bharatiya Kamgar Mahasangh, the union General Secretary Naresh Birwadkar in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the compensation should be paid as per the minimum wages norms of the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) and International Labour Organisation (ILO) as well as considering the special circumstances.

The copies of the letter, sent on June 7, have also been marked to the Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Chairman and Managing Director, ONGC and Director (offshore), ONGC.

P305, an accommodation barge, which sank off the Mumbai coast when cyclone Tauktae struck last month, was among the vessels deployed by a contractor firm at the state-run ONGC’s oil and gas fields near Mumbai.

There were a total of 274 personnel, 261 from Barge P305 and 13 from anchor handling Tugboat, Varaprada. The tug was deployed by Afcons to tow the barge GAL Constructor, which has also lost its anchors, drifting it away and ran aground near Palghar, Maharashtra, according to the FSUI.

So far, 86 people have been confirmed dead.

Mumbai Police, at Yellow Gate Police station, has registered a case of negligence against the captain of the barge following a complaint by an engineer.

“This (police investigation) seems to be a planned ploy to get out of the responsibility by ONGC and its contractor, Afcon.

“The Union feels that there are some hidden agenda of the shipowners and contractors and request your good self to kindly take necessary steps to pin the responsibility and find the lapse in this incident for which we request you to order a high Level and speedy judicial inquiry,” FSUI General Secretary Naresh Birwadkar said in the letter.

Stating that such a probe could bring out the lapses like whether all the vessels were following mandatory international maritime rules and regulations, he said.

“We also request the Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, to do the needful to conduct marine auditing on the subject vessels. We also request suitable death compensation, as per the MLC/ILO Minimum wages norms and considering the special circumstances,” Birwadkar stated in the letter.

Following the incident, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural announced the setting up of a 3-member high-level committee, comprising Director General Hydrocarbon, Director General Shipping and a Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Defence to inquire into the drifting of several vessels into the sea.

Besides, the DGS is carrying out the statutory “casualty investigation” to find out the people responsible for the incident which resulted in so many deaths. — PTI

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