Victims' kin protest; mayor assures relief, govt jobs

Roopa, wife of Jagadish, who was crushed under a tree on Friday night, and her brother Rajkumar, a senior Aadhaar offical, took three hours to reach Victoria Hospital from their house in Byrasandra, a mere 4.2 km away.

“All routes were blocked as trees and electric poles had fallen everywhere. On RV Road alone, over 20 trees and poles had fallen on vehicles and roads, obstructing traffic,” said Rajkumar.

“It is distressing that we could only reach the hospital to see their bodies, and not reach the spot to save them,” Rajkumar lamented. Jagadish and Roopa have three daughters Pallavi (20), Chetana (19), and Aishwarya (17). The two elder sisters are married and Jagadish worked as a tailor.

“I learnt about my husband’s death only through television channels. No one informed me. I have three daughters and I don’t care about any compensation. I just want my husband back alive,” lamented Roopa.

Roopa also said her husband’s life was snuffed out due to BBMP’s negligence. She said that though locals had complained several times that the tree posed a danger, the BBMP was unmoved.

Though MLA R V Devaraj and his councillor son R V Yuvaraj had advised the Palike to check the health of the tree six months ago, nothing was done, the locals claimed. “What is the forest department for and what are tree officials for?” Rajkumar asked. “We will not accept the bodies. Instead, we will take them to the spot and protest till BBMP officials answer our questions,” he said.

Postmortem conducted

The postmortem of the three was conducted at Victoria Hospital after which the bodies were handed over to family members. They however refused to shift the bodies and insisted that the mayor or the minister arrive.

Rs 5 lakh, govt job

Around 3 pm, Mayor G Padmavathi and commissioner Manjunath Prasad arrived at the Victoria Hospital morgue and consoled the family. The mayor promised compensation of Rs 5 lakh to each victim’s family and government jobs for one member of each family.

She also promised some remuneration to Ramesh and Bharathi’s young son Rahul.

Colleagues pay homage

Scores of home guards visited Victoria Hospital’s morgue on Friday to see their deceased colleague Bharathi.

She was battling breast cancer for more than a year and had just returned to work after treatment at Kidwai, a relative said.

DH News Service