Air India Holds All Religion Prayer Meet in Memory of Air Crash Victims
Pics by Sphoorthy Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore
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Mangalore, Jul 27: An all religion memorial prayer service was held at the Dr TMA Pai International Convention Centre, Mangalore on Tuesday July 27 in memory of all those whose precious lives were perished in the tragic air crash of Air India Express IX-812 on May 22 in City.
Family members and relatives of the deceased passengers, their friends, well-wishers and survivors, several Air India officials including chairman and managing director of Air India Aravind Jadhav, Madhavan Nambiar, secretary, Ministryof Civil Aviation participated in the meeting to pay their tributes to the air crash victims. Deputy commissioner V Ponnuraj and inspector general of police (western range) were also present on the occasion.
Prayers by religious heads of different religious faiths formed the most essential part of the memorial service. The multi-religious prayer service was conducted by B K Elias, representing the Muslim faith, M B Puranik for the Hindu faith, Sham Singh on behalf of Sikh faith, Nirmal Kumar representing Jain faith and Fr Denis Rasquinha as representative of the Christian faith. The prayer service also included prayer song befitting the occasion sung by the nuns of Bethany Convent.
CMD, Air India Aravind Jadhav speaking before the commencement of the prayer stated “Air India is not going to let the incident as a thing of the past. We want this to be a part of the present and future”. He also said that Air India is committed to the welfare of the families of survivors. He assured the family members of the deceased that Air India willl be with them to ensure justice will be done to the family members at any cost.
“Though there are many hurdles in the way in achieving this I want to assure you our heart is in the right place and we are with you. At the moment the best thing we could do is to help you to come back to normalcy and make Air India a part of this recovery process”, he assured.
Madhavan Nambiar also reiterated the commitment of the Civil Aviation Ministry to work closely with the family members of the victims in ensuring that proper compensation is given to the family members. He assured that it is the responsibility of Air India to ensure the safety and welfare of the family members of the victims and would it would work in the perspective. “We want to assure you that we are with you and continue to be with you to see how best we can help ease your sorrow and pain”.
Earlier in the day, Madhavan Nambiar, Aravind Jadhav and other officials visited the crash site area and paid floral tributes to the victims at the newly erected Memorial. Air India officials had made arrangements for lighting candles outside the hall and the names of all the victims were displayed nearby to enable family members and relatives to pay condolences to their loved ones by lighting candles. Arrangements were made to take the family members to the Memorial site and bring them back.
In the afternoon Air India Officials have arranged a session with counsel H D Nanavati where the family members could discuss all relevant information pertaining to compensation and other details.