Chennai: The dance of death continued in Tamil Nadu Kallakurichi district, where consumption of spurious liquor has converted the Karunapuram village into a gloomy habitat, with 11 more succumbing to the poisonous brew taking the toll to 50 on Friday. The additional deaths occurred from Thursday late night onwards.
At least 130 others have been hospitalised and are undergoing treatment in different stages of criticality in the districts of Salem and Villpuram and JIPMER in Puducherry. A 70-plus medical team drawn from hospitals in the nearby hospitals have been rushed to Kallakurichi to try and prevent further deaths.
The tragedy echoed in the Legislative Assembly as well as the Madras High Court. In the Assembly, the AIADMK legislators led by Leader of Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami, who had all turned up wearing black shirts as a sign of protest, were ordered to be evicted by Speaker M Appavu as they tried to raise the issue at the beginning of the session.
With the killer brew consuming the lives of many a breadwinner including orphaning three siblings, Chief Minister M K Stalin told the Assembly that the Government will bear the education expenses (up to graduation) of all children who had lose both or either of their parents in the village. The orphaned children would be given Rs 5,000 per month, besides a deposit of Rs 5 lakh would be opened in their names, which they could withdraw when they turn 18 years. A deposit of Rs 3 lakh would be opened in the names of children who lost either of their parents.
Meanwhile, a Division Bench of Justices D Krishnakumar and K Kumaresh Babu of the Madras High Court, hearing a plea by two AIADMK lawyers for a CBI probe into the hooch tragedy, demanded to know how the Government allowed this tragedy to happen when only last year 22 persons had died after consuming spurious liquor in two districts. The court wanted to know if the Government had learnt any lessons from the previous case and if it took preventive steps to prevent its recurrence.
In a related development, Justice B Gokuldas, retired judge of the Madras High Court, who was appointed as a one man commission to probe the tragedy, interacted with people in Kallakurichi on the incident. He formally commenced his probe, thus.
