VIRUDHUNAGAR: Four women belonging to three generations of a family died in the blast at a firecracker unit near Sivakasi on Thursday. Relatives of the women mourned outside the mortuary at the Sivakasi Government Hospital and reminisced the last moments they spent with them.
The deceased women have been identified as M Aavudayammal (75), her daughter M Muthu (52), and granddaughters V Lakshmi (47) and K Jeyalakshmi (25). At least 60 relatives gathered outside the mortuary.
Recalling the last moments with Lakshmi, her relative T Akkamal (38), a cracker unit employee herself, said, “It was only a week ago, when Lakshmi brought her daughter Poomari, who is pregnant and is due in 10 days, to her house after the baby shower. Now, she will never be able to see her grandchild’s face.” An inconsolable Akkamal added that Lakshmi did not take leaves because she wanted to take care of her daughter after delivery.
P Muthalagi (34) said that all her mother, Muthu, wanted was to see her granddaughter, who is on vacation in Madurai now. “The same time yesterday, I was speaking to my mother. Even then she was asking me to bring my daughter to her house, but I was unable to fulfil her wish,” she said.
Even as officials from the district administration and elected representatives jostled in the hospital corridors, assuring measures to prevent such accidents, arrest of the accused and support for the families of the victims, the relatives dismissed all of it as mere eyewash.
“They just want us to collect the body and move on. Is the government taking any significant step to prevent such accidents,” the relatives questioned and expressed their disappointment as 19-year-old V Alagujothi, a fourth-generation woman of the family and a cracker unit employee herself, stood staring at the mortuary that stored her mother Lakshmi’s body.
