COIMBATORE: The National Commission for Scheduled Castes recommended invoking of the SC, ST (Prevention Atrocities) Act against the accused in the Mettupalayam wall collapse incident. Commission Chairman Ram Shankar Katheria wrote letters recommending the action to Tamil Nadu Police Department and the Collector after visiting the mishap spot at Nadur, where the wall collapsed and claimed lives of 17 Dalits, in Mettupalayam on Thursday. He was accompanied by Commission’s Vice Chairman L Murugan, Collector K Rajamani and Superintendent of Police Sujith Kumar among others.
“Taking suo motu cognizance of the incident, we came here to investigate. We have asked the State government to hand over the remaining `6 lakh of the `10 lakh compensation to the victims’ family by Friday. Also, the State should provide a government job to the kin of the victims by a week’s time. Besides, the commission emphasised that the charge sheet for the case should be filed without any delay,” added the chairman.
Replying to a query that whether the wall was constructed on the discriminatory ground, he said that a proper investigation would be carried out to unfold the truth. Also, he added that the commission would hold an investigation into the reported police’s act of suppressing the Dalit people by lathi charging them at government Mettupalayam hospital on Monday.
“It has been claimed that the people of Nadur have already petitioned the Mettupalayam Municipality Commissioner a year ago about the compound wall. The commission would conduct an enquiry into this. A memo would be issued to the commissioner soon. We have also asked the Public Works Department to scientifically analyse the structure of the wall,” he said.
Immediately in the aftermath of the mishap, the commission received many petitions on similar walls from across Tamil Nadu. He assured to look into those petitions soon. A few hours before the SC Commission’s chairman’s visit, the district administration razed the remaining part of the wall and other walls of higher heights in the adjacent buildings.