The families affected, materially and physically, by the explosion that ripped through an illegal firecracker storage centre at Choorakkadu in Thripunithura have joined hands to stage a legal fight for timely compensation.
An action council to pursue that goal was formed at a meeting held on Tuesday and attended by members of five residents associations affected by the blast. The blast had claimed two lives, injured 25 and damaged over a hundred houses in the extended neighbourhood.
A 15-member executive committee with Puthiyakavu division councillor Sudha Suresh as convener was formed at the meeting. “The meeting decided to approach the court with a plea to appoint an advocate’s commission assisted by civil engineering experts to assess the extent of damage, fix responsibility for the blast, and to ensure quick disbursal of compensation. We will approach a lawyer on Wednesday to move the court at the earliest,” said Santhosh Kumar M., president of Choorakkadu West Residents Association, one of the five aggrieved associations.
Going beyond their immediate objective, the meeting also decided to move legally for an effective ban on fireworks display featuring strong explosives across the State. The meeting witnessed the general discontent of the families who wanted all firecracker selling shops in the neighbourhood to be removed from the residential area though the matter was left at that.
