Coimbatore: Demanding that the house owner be booked under appropriate case and family members of the victim provided with government jobs, the relatives and community people of the 17 people who were crushed to death after a compound wall collapsed on their homes at AT Colony in MTP entered with a verbal tiff with the officials of the District Administration.
Coimbatore: Demanding that the house owner be booked under appropriate case and family members of the victim provided with government jobs, the relatives and community people of the 17 people who were crushed to death after a compound wall collapsed on their homes at AT Colony in MTP entered with a verbal tiff with the officials of the District Administration.
"Only, if the government pays heed to our four demands - arrest of the house owner, government jobs to the family members of the victim, Rs. 25 lakhs compensation for each life lost and free housing, we would collect the bodies of the deceased from the mortuary", vowed the relatives.
Labelling the compound wall which killed 17 people as 'untouchability wall', the protesting family members alleged that despite knowing that the wall could turn fatal to the houses, the owner who hails from a upper caste had built the wall to stay away from our community (Arundhadhiyar community), they lamented.
Meanwhile, Mettupalayam police have filed a case under two sections on the owner of the house, Shiva Subaramaniyam.
District Collector K. Rajamani, Inspector General of Police(West Zone) Periyappa and Deputy Chairman Karthikeyan held talks with the family members and caste organisation at MTP Thasildhar office. Even after the officials assured to escalate the issue to the CM, the family members denied to collect the bodies.
As the protest intensified, the police resorted to mild lathi charge and dispersed the protestors. Later, they agreed to collected the bodies and dispersed.
Supporting their demands and allegations, M.H. Jawaharullah, President of Manidhaneya Makkal Katchi has urged that legal action should be initiated on the house owner for causing the death of 17 innocent lives. He also cited the allegation by the family if yeh victims which claims the wall as a wall symbolising 'untouchability'. Later, he requested the government to increase the compensation from RS. 4 lakh to RS. 10 lakh.