Ahmedabad Plane Crash: IMA urges Tata Sons to support injured, deceased medical students

Indian Medical Association, Gujarat State Branch on Saturday urged Tata Sons to extend financial support to medical students at the BJ Medical College who were injured and killed in the Air India flight AI -171 crash near Ahmedabad airport.

Several students from the college had been present at the site during the incident which has shaken the country and claimed about 274 lives including those onboard and on-ground.

Following the crash, the Tata group, which owns Air India, announced a compensation of Rs 1 crore each for the families of those who lost their lives in the tragic plane crash.

In a letter addressed to N Chandrasekaran, Chairman of Tata Sons, the IMA appreciated Air India's announcement of compensation and requested the company for generous and urgent support for the affected medical students and doctors as well.

"We humbly request you to consider extending financial assistance and necessary support to the medical students present at the crash site who were injured or lost their lives in this unfortunate event," the letter read.

“These individuals were not only victims but also future pillars of our healthcare system, and their well-being and families deserve similar care and support. Accordingly, we earnestly request you to declare immediately similar help to the medical students injured or who had lost their life,” it added.

Earlier, two doctors filed a petition in the Supreme Court, seeking directions to the Central government to provide adequate compensation to the affected medical students.

The plea, filed on Friday by Dr. Saurav Kumar and Dr. Dhruv Chauhan, has urged the SC to direct the Central government to immediately announce and disburse interim compensation of Rs 50 lakh for the families of all deceased victims, including resident doctors from the BJ Medical College who were among those killed.

The petition also sought directions for the Central Government to provide rehabilitation support, including employment opportunities for eligible family members of the deceased persons and for a thorough investigation into the cause of the crash with necessary steps to prevent similar incidents in the future.