VISAKHAPATNAM: Members of All India Defence Employees Federation (AIDEF) and employees union of Naval Dockyard on Sunday alleged that the IAF authorities had violated the rules by ferrying the NAD staffers in aircraft.
According to them, the IAF should only take senior officers in aircraft, while other employees were supposed to travel by ships or flights after the authorities pay the travelling charges. The AIDEF demanded a high-level inquiry into the missing IAF aircraft AN-32 over the Bay of Bengal on July 22.
“The law says such civilians should not be taken on aircraft for such operations. For the last two years, the employees are being taken to Port Blair during emergencies. If the staffers express fear that they could not travel by aircraft, they are being threatened by the NAD senior officers,” said SM Moula Ali, the Retired Employees Union president of Naval Dockyard and District vice-president of AITUC. He also said that the employees union had objected to it several times, even submitted representations, but the NAD authorities never responded.
Compensation row
According to the employees union, in case of any untoward incident the officers will receive Rs 50 lakh insurance, an ex gratia of Rs 25 lakh and other benefits as per the norms. But when it comes to civilians, during untoward incidents, they get Rs 1.2 lakh as group insurance and Rs 10 lakh as workers’ compensation. Moula Ali added that the families of workers who lost their lives in the NAD fire mishap were yet to receive solatioum till now.