JOIN USThoothukudi police firing victims to get additional compensation
Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday announced an additional compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to the families of 13 civilians who were killed in police firing at anti-Sterlite protesters in Thoothukudi on May 22, 2018.
The compensation will be provided from the Chief Minister’s Public Relief Fund (CMPRF), the government said in a statement. The announcement follows Chief Minister M K Stalin’s assurance in the Tamil Nadu Assembly on October 19 that the compensation provided to the families of the victims will be enhanced.
Stalin made the announcement while replying to a debate on the contents of the Justice Aruna Jagadeesan Committee which went into the police firing. The commission had recommended a total compensation of Rs 50 lakh, noting that the Rs 20 lakh awarded as solatium was not enough.
“The government has permitted withdrawal of Rs 65 lakhs from the CMPRF to be paid to all the 13 families,” the statement added. Besides the monetary compensation, the families were also provided job based on qualification.
As many as 13 civilians were killed in the police firing at Thoothukudi Collectorate and elsewhere in the town on May 22, 2018, as the 100-day old protest against expansion of Sterlite Copper owned by Vedanta turned violent. Following the violence, the copper smelter was closed.
The Commission, in its four-volume report, recommended against 17 policemen, one IAS officer, and three revenue officials, who are believed to have given police the permission to shoot. The Commission also concluded that “totality of the facts and circumstances” would not suggest that the police had been acting in exercising the right of private defence.
Justice Jagadeesan also inferred that the political leadership led by then Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami failed to defuse the situation in Thoothukudi before it went out of control, despite suggestions to allay people’s apprehension on various issues and specific intelligence about violence during the anti-Sterlite protests.
The comments by the retired judge is a damning indictment of Palaniswami, who is still being criticized for his remarks that he knew about the firing incident only through news update on television channels.