Chennai: Families of those killed in the hooch tragedy were presented cheques for Rs 10 lakh each, which was announced as relief by the State government, by Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Development Udhayanidhi Stalin who visited Karunapuram in Kallakurichi district to console the families and oversee the relief operations on Thursday while the police arrested four bootleggers responsible for selling the spurious liquor.
The Opposition parties came down on the government like a ton of bricks though the State government transferred the case to CB-CID, held a review meeting with top officials and appointed a single man commission, headed by retired High Court judge B Gokuldas, for a detailed probe into the tragedy that had already taken the lives of at least 35 persons and sent about 40 persons to hospital ,
Besides issuing statements, making scathing comments to the media and putting posts in social media blaming the government for the deaths and alleging that there was a nexus between the bootleggers and the Ministers, MLAs and police officials, many top political leaders landed at Karunapuram to meet the families of the dead and those fighting for their lives in the Government hospital at Kallakurichi.
The State Assembly that met at Fort St George briefly passed a resolution condoling the death of hooch victims, along with other obituary references before adjourning for the day, while BJP MLA Vanathi Srinivasan told media persons that her party had given notice for a attention motion to discuss the matter in the House on Friday.
The Chief Minister said that a thorough investigation would be done into the supply of Methanol to identify the culprits and also the procurement sources and posted a message in his X page saying that he was terribly distressed by the incident and was closely monitoring the actions taken on all fronts.
While he had already despatched Ministerial colleagues, A V Velu and M Subramanian, to meet the affected people in Karunapuram on Thursday, he had advised the State Home Secretary and Director General of Police to visit the victims and expedite relief operations, besides sending Udhayanidhi Stalin.
The health condition of those admitted to hospitals in Kallakurichi, JIPMER in Puducherry, Salem and Villupuram was closely observed and a relief of Rs 50,000 had been announced for those admitted to hospitals, he said, adding that retired judge Gokuldas had been given 3 months to submit a report after probing the incident threadbare.
Even as social media users went to town accusing the police of not doing anything to curb the sales of illicit liquor from the particular vend in Karunapuram, run by Kannukutty alias Govindarajan (now in police custody) for at least two decades, television channels spoke to the families of the dead persons for their reactions.
Poignant stories of children losing their fathers suddenly, young women becoming windows and families rendered helpless due to the death of the sole breadwinners were featured in the channels that also had narrations on how victims lost their vision and hearing ability and writhed in pain without knowing what had hit them before being taken to hospital.
PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss alleged that illicit arrack distillation was going on unabated in the Kalvarayan Hills with the connivance of local political leaders and also the police. He cited instances of police officials who cracked down on bootlegging getting transferred to other places at the behest of local political leaders of the ruling party.
Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly Edappadi K Palaniswami wanted the Chief Minister to step down and called for a State-wide protest on June 24 against the government failure to prevent the tragedy.
BJP State President K Annamalai, who wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah requesting a CBI enquiry into the deaths, said in a message on X said that the Chief Minister had lost his moral right to continue in the post after 60 lives had been lost to hooch and demanded the dropping of Prohibition Minister Muthusamy from the Cabinet.
At a press conference he said that the Chief Minister should have come down to Kallakurichi to console the people who had lost their loved ones instead of deputing Udhayanidhi Stalin. He demanded the announcement on the closing down of 100 TASMAC shops and assured to extend all help to the victims of the tragedy through the schemes of the Union Government once the mourning was over. He also announced a protest by the BJP on Saturday all over the State.
Founder of the Tamilar Vetri Kazhagam, Vijay, too blamed the government for failing to take appropriate steps to prevent the tragedy though a similar one had happened just a year ago in a post in his X page and then drove down to Kallakurichi to console the families of the dead and those admitted to hospital.
BJP’s national co-incharge of Tamil Nadu affairs, P Sudhakar Reddy, wanted the government to appoint a sitting High Court Judge for the probe instead of a retired judge and demanded that the Chief Minister take responsibility for the catastrophe.
