COIMBATORE: DMK President MK Stalin on Tuesday said the State government should provide government job to a family member of the 17 people who lost their lives after a compound wall fell on a row of houses at Nadur village in Mettupalayam.
He added that such a disaster could have been averted had the officials not shown negligence towards the requests of Nadur villagers seeking removal of the wall.
Stalin, who met family members of the deceased, speaking to media persons said that the Rs 4 lakh solatium announced by the Chief Minister is not enough. He said additional amount should be given to the familes of the people who lost their lives.
Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami later announced an additional Rs 6 lakh to the solatium, taking the amount to Rs 10 lakh.
"The government should construct new houses, carry out proper investigation and arrest the accused who constructed the compound wall that fell over the houses and killed 17 people on Sunday morning," said the leader of the Opposition.
MK Stalin also spoke to Collector K Rajamani over phone and enquired rescue works that are being undertaken.
Stalin said that the deaths could have been prevented if the municipality or the district administration had demolished the compound wall earlier since the residents had already submitted petitions on the same.
"The deaths happened only due to the negligence of the government bodies and the authorities have cremated the deceased hurriedly after conducting postmortem examination. The police also made a lathi charge on the relatives who protested and refused to accept the bodies. Many of them have been hospitalised. The government should take necessary action against the police officials who attacked protesters," said the DMK chief.
CPM State Secretary K Balakrishnan who also paid his condolences to the kin of people whose lives were taken, said that the government should file a murder case against the Sivasubramaniam (the person who owns the house, the compound wall of which collapsed) by conducting a detailed enquiry.
"The government should provide Rs 25 lakh solatium to the family members, apart from constructing concrete houses for all the people in Nadur," he said. Balakrishnan also condemned the police who used force against people seeking justice.
Meanwhile, Madurai MP S Venkatesan submitted a petition to the social welfare minister to depute a chairman of the SC commission and to order a full-fledged inquiry on the incident. He also asked the chief minister to conduct the periodical vigilance committee meeting mandated by Prevention of Atrocities (POA) Act.
Meanwhile, Makkal Needhi Maiyam Founder, Kamal Hassan also said that the government should prevent such tragic incidents in the future by taking precautionary measures.