Tuticorin firing: CM Palaniswami offers jobs to family members of 19 victims

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami Thursday gave away appointment orders to 19 people including kin of those killed in the May 22 police firing on anti-Sterlite protesters in Tuticorin. 

An official release here said the Chief Minister gave away the orders to kin of 10 people killed in the firing, besides five individuals who sustained severe injuries. 

The benefit was also extended to kin of four persons who had suffered severe injuries in the incident, it said. 

The appointments were made on compassionate grounds and the beneficiaries will be employed in the state Revenue and Disaster Management and Social Welfare and Nutritious Meal Scheme departments, the release added. 

It recalled the government having sanctioned a sum of Rs 20 lakh each to the families of people killed in the firing, besides Rs five lakh to those who sustained serious injuries. 

As many as 13 people were killed and several injured on May 22 when the police opened fire on a huge crowd of people protesting against environmental pollution being allegedly caused by Sterlite Industries, a copper smelter plant operated by Vedanta Ltd, in Tuticorin.