Wayanad: The delay on the part of the government in announcing compensation to families of victims in the recent jeep tragedy has invited widespread protests.
The jeep accident which occurred at Kannothumala, in Thavinjal Panchayath near Mananthavadi on August 25, had claimed nine lives and left five injured. All the victims were women and all of them were plantation labourers returning from daily work.
In May, a day after the Tanur boat tragedy, which claimed 22 lives, the state government had announced a compensation of Rs 10 lakh each to the victims' families.
"We strongly feel that the state government's neglect stems from their inherent disregard for the poor who toil in the sun to eke out a living, " said Santhosh, son of Chinnamma, who resides at Makkimala.
“All of us are confined to our homes as we are unable to go out during the mandatory grieving period of 16-days following the death of a relative,” he said.
“We have been asked to submit online applications to the Prime Minister and Chief Minister to receive the compensation from respective relief funds. This is illogical”, said Ravichandran, son of Shantha, another victim. However, he said that no government officials had approached them so far regarding the compensation.
Meanwhile, the Thavinjal panchayath on Thursday passed a resolution to expressed their protest in the delay. They have also decided to submit a memorandum to the state government demanding a compensation of Rs 15 lakh each for every victim's family and Rs 5 lakh for the injured.
After giving a solatium of Rs 10,000 to the families, Transport minister AK Saseendran had said that the state government would announce a compensation.
Though Onmanorama tried to contact District Collector Dr Renu Raj, it was informed that she was on leave till September 13. Additional District Magistrate NI Shaju, who is in acting-in-charge, told Onmanorama that all documents have been already submitted to the state government and a decision will be announced shortly. However, he evaded questions on the compensation amount and said the decision was to be made by the state government.
“Though the revenue department says there was a delay in receiving post mortem report and other documents of deceased, that has nothing to do with the compensation”, Congress leader PK Jayalakshmi, who is also a former MLA from Mananthavadi, said.
