Karur stampede: Nirmala Sitharaman meets affected families, says ‘no words to describe their sorrow’
During her visit, the Finance minister favoured the framing of a standard operating procedure for public gatherings following the stampede in Karur.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said she had no words to describe the sorrow of the families who lost their loved ones in the stampede here on September 27 and added that such incidents should not happen again anywhere.
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She favoured the framing of a standard operating procedure for public gatherings, especially when a large number of women and children too gather, and that it should be applicable for the entire country.
The Union Finance Minister, accompanied by Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting L Murugan, visited the Government Medical College Hospital, Karur, and met the injured and enquired about their health condition.
Later, she interacted with doctors about the treatment being provided to the injured. She met the families who lost their kin in the stampede.
As many as 41 people died in the stampede at a rally of actor Vijay-led Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam at Velusamypuram on September 27 night.
"I can't describe their sorrow. I am shattered ...I am unable to speak or console the bereaved," she told reporters here. Many among the victims were poor, she added.
She was in Karur with a very defined mission to convey Prime Minister Narendra Modi's concerns to the families affected by the stampede. "He wanted us to meet the families who lost their near and dear ones and the affected undergoing treatment in the hospital," she said.
Both the central ministers were deputed to Karur by the Prime Minister as he could not personally visit to console the bereaved families. She would submit a report to the Prime Minister and Union Home Minister Amit Shah about the visit, which was purely to console the affected, she stressed.
The solatium of ₹2 lakh each to the families who lost their kin, and ₹50,000 to the injured, announced by the Prime Minister, will be credited directly to their bank accounts.
She said such tragic incidents should not happen again anywhere. To a question, Sitharaman replied, "No time is bad time for setting proper SOPs for public matters, particularly where there will be a huge assembly of people, women, and children, no hesitation. In fact, we are probably rather too late. Not just one state, all over the country, we should have a better way of pubic gathering management."
