Five other families of the employees of Rajammal Fireworks in Virudhunagar district who lost their lives in the 2020 fire accident in the unit filed petitions before the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday, seeking a direction to the State to provide them compensation.
Already, six petitions had been filed by other families of the fire accident victims. In separate petitions, S. Selvakumar, K. Balasubramanian, C. Jeyakumar, M. Muppidathi and S. Ganesan said the State government had announced an interim compensation of ₹1 lakh for each victim and the Collector had also assured that the State government would provide a compensation of ₹10 lakh and employment to one member of each of the families of the victims.
But, no relief had been granted to the family members. Though they had sent a number of representations to the authorities, no steps had been taken, they said.
The authorities had failed to properly monitor the cracker units in the region. Since the State had allowed Rajammal Fireworks to function without a proper licence and permission, the authorities were vicariously liable to pay adequate compensation, they said.
Justice C.V. Karthikeyan sought a response from the State and adjourned the hearing till December 6. During the course of the hearing, the State submitted that a proposal was made to decide the compensation amount.
