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  • 9 months ago
The Attorney for the families of the four Paria divers who lost their lives after they were sucked into a pipeline says a game is being played and it is disrespectful to the relatives left behind.

Prakash Ramadhar was speaking with the Tv6 Morning Edition on Monday.


More from Nicole M Romany
Transcript
00:00Not a single cent has been paid to the families still grieving the loss of
00:06their relatives three years ago. These are the words of attorney Prakash Ramadao.
00:11The deceased Fazal Kirban, Qasim Ali Junior, Rishi Nagasa and Yusuf Henry were
00:19sucked into the 30-inch undersea pipeline while conducting repairs in
00:24in February of 2022. A fifth diver, Christopher Boodram, managed to escape but was later
00:33prevented from returning to save the others. Today, attorney Prakash Ramadao says,
00:39it is heartless to delay or drag on compensating the families.
00:44If you cannot agree on a number, say, listen, this is what we consider to be fair,
00:48offer that and we'll say, no, this is not, or we could say, yes, this is okay.
00:53But keeping that stoic silence in terms of, you know, we have a duty, as if we are in the wrong,
00:58we have to prove a right, we have to prove things, no, it doesn't work like that. And I'm fearful
01:05that one of the games being played could very well be that lawyers want this in their grasps.
01:10I'm sorry to put it like this, so that they could litigate and more fees will
01:14be paid to lawyers assisting from looking after the families.
01:18The attorney says the families are not wealthy and should be paid a $5 million ex gratia payment
01:25without having to resort to court, adding that what happened to the four men was a combination
01:32of heinousness because, he says, the men were allowed to die when they could have been saved.
01:39Further, he tells us, the prime minister could have done more to assist.
01:43The prime minister, very deftly, very, very brilliantly, through it,
01:50and all of responsibility to lawyers, that was completely wrong. He is the leader of this
01:55country and he represents the conscience of this nation. And it was within and is still within the
02:01power of the political directory to tell Paria, look, settle this matter.
02:08Ramada says there is still international interest in this case, noting that he was
02:13recently contacted by the Daily Mail on the progress of the situation. He tells us after
02:20tens of millions of taxpayer dollars was spent on the commission of inquiry, the recommendations
02:26should be adhered to, noting that one such recommendation was to compensate the relatives
02:32of the victims. The recommendations would have been necessary and are still necessary to ensure
02:38if such a thing should recur, that we have things in place. Do we have something that existed in the
02:44country before, national operating centers, so that you coordinate all of the arms of state or
02:50whatever resources required to deal with any emergency? Because what happened at the very
02:55least, least or the most innocent of expectations, is a headless chicken, an incompetence.
03:01Nicole M Romany, TV6 News.
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