Pune blast compensation eludes Nepal victim’s kin

KATHMANDU - Four months after a Nepali worker’s tragic death in the German Bakery incident in Pune in which 17 people were killed, his family has not been able to receive the compensation announced by the Indian authorities.

Gokul Nepali, a 22-year-old from Nuwakot district who was working in the popular cafe, was killed in the explosion Feb 13, along with four more foreigners.

Seventeen people were killed in the blast while nearly five dozen, including two more Nepalis, were injured.

The Pune authorities announced a compensation of Rs.500,000 to the family of each victim who died.

Gokul’s mother Mithu and wife Maina went to Pune to receive the compensation. However, they had to return empty-handed due to bureaucratic red tape.

Nepal’s state media Wednesday said the two women were told to return to Kathmandu where the compensation would be forwarded through the Indian embassy in Kathmandu. However, though they camped in the capital for several weeks, they have not been able to receive the money.

To add to their plight, their trips to Pune and Kathmandu have made them run up a debt of nearly Rs.40,000, a huge amount in the villages of Nepal, one of the poorest countries in the world.

The family has no other earning members. Gokul was married just a few days before he was killed.

(Sudeshna Sarkar can be contacted at sudeshna.s@ians.in)