Manglore Tragedy – We Need CALA

Manglore tragedy reminded us about the need of civil accidental liability both financial as well in terms of fixation of responsibility in such scenarios. We are talking about of becoming a superpower while we are still unable to secure the lives of our citizens as well fixing ownerships. We have a huge discussion inside/outside parliament about Nuclear Liability Bill but current need is Civil Accidental Liability Act. We need CALA as a 3 teethed act, one fixing the responsibility, second fast & rigorous judicial punishments for responsible persons & third early compensation to victims/families.

Compensation in such cases should be linked with living cost, dependents, earning potential for lifetime as well liabilities of deceased/survivor in addition to a threshold fixed amount. We do require early closure of compensation procedures without any involvement of middlemen. Direct transaction to bank account with least possible procedures would only help the cause. We need to close the need of government generosity depended upon each and every situation. Law should itself fix financial responsibilities and the payer.

Fast track courts like Qasab's trial are required. We need to learn that there is no difference between the responsible ones for loss of life in such cases and a terrorist killing people ruthlessly. Law of land should be strong enough to punish the people behind the scenes for such losses.

We don't need dramatic sequences like leaders’ visiting of sites, ministers giving resignation while taking moral responsibility, ready-made rejections of these resignations, announcement of meagre compensation like doing some favour, relatives running one corner to another & paying bribes after that to get that meagre amount and again moving on with continuous repetition of such instances.

Civil Society needs to raise voice for CALA in very strong way. We need to force government to get the CALA tabled and passed as Law, via every possible route involving sending memorandums, media support, RTI, PILs or whatever way we can.