Still coping with tragedy, 25 years on

CHANDIGARH: It takes 16 million gallons of water to rouse the bosses at Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) from their slumber. The BCCL top brass woke up to the absence of pumps only after 38 miners were trapped in the flooded Bagdigi colliery on February 2. For 48 hours thereafter, rescue operations could not begin till equipment from other collieries finally arrived.In that time, 30 lives and many more hopes were drowned just as they were on December 27, 1975, when the Chasnalla colliery of the Indian Iron and Steel Company (IISCO) got flooded. Three officers and 400 labourers perished in that disaster. Among the trapped was assistant manager Virendra Mohan Bhatnagar. His body was never traced in the six months of salvage operations. Bhatnagar''s wife, Vibha, recounts how operations even then had been delayed by 15 days for want of pumps. ``By the time the bodies were brought out, they were beyond recognition,'''' she says. A lot more had changed beyond recognition for the families of the dead. Vibha, for instance, was shattered. She had two sons, one an infant and the other four years old, to bring up. With its bread-earner gone, the family had to depend on relatives for support. More so, because official aid was not forthcoming for the dependents of the victims. Though the miners were killed in an accident while on duty, no compensation was paid to their dependents by the company, Vibha recalls: ``We received only the group insurance cover of one lakh rupees.'''' An August 6, 1977, letter from the ministry of steel and mines flatly said: ``Insofar as payment of ad hoc compensation and financial assistance for education of children is concerned, there is no scope for further assistance.'''' The families were entitled to the `Coal Mines Family Pension Scheme'' but the benefits were meagre: Rs 125 per month (later hiked to Rs 239 per month). For that too, the beneficiary had to submit a demeaning `life and non-marriage certificate'' on a monthly basis. And then await the money. Vibha gave up on the scheme after her pension went into arrears between 1993 and 1997. She was also entitled to a government job under the special rehabilitation scheme, but it took her over two years to get the promised job. Today, as she prepares to retire as Sanskrit teacher from the Govt Model Sr Secondary School, Chandigarh, Vibha wonders: ``What if I had not been qualified for this job; how would I have managed my life without any compensation?'''' That''s a question facing many women in Bagdigi today.