Chennai, Oct 13 (BPNS)
AIADMK senior leader and former fisheries minister of Tamil Nadu, D. Jayakumar has demanded a solatium of Rs 25 lakh to the family of a person who committed suicide by self-immolation over the non-issuance of a caste certificate. The man immolated himself inside the Madras High Court campus.
The former minister, in a statement on Thursday, said that the government and its officers must take responsibility for the non-issuance of the Scheduled Tribe certificate to the deceased person’s son leading to his self-immolation.
Jayakumar also demanded a government job for one of the dependents of the deceased man.
PMK leader, Dr. S. Ramadoss in a series of tweets called upon the state government to take action against those responsible for the self-immolation of a person inside the Madras High Court complex apparently for non-issuance of Scheduled Tribe certificate to his son.
He said that this was the second such case within 100 days in Tamil Nadu and added that the Scheduled Tribe community certificate has to be issued within a month of applying for the certificate.
The PMK founder leader also called upon the government to ease the mechanism to issue community certificates.
It may be noted that a 45-year-old Scheduled Tribe person from Padappai in Kancheepuram district had immolated himself on Tuesday inside the Madras High Court campus and was taken to the Kilpauk Government Medical College Hospital. Velumurgan succumbed to his injuries on Wednesday.
The deceased who was a mason took extreme steps after the reported delay in the issuance of the ST certificate to his son. He had written a letter to the family stating that people like him from the Kuravar community were not getting Scheduled Tribe certificates as authorities failed to differentiate between them and Narikkuruvars.
His wife Chitra had held a protest dharna in front of the morgue of the Government Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital along with their three children and relatives. She had refused to accept the body of Velmurugan and the relatives and local people demanded a government job for Chithra and financial aid for her.
Madras High Court Justice, S.M. Subramanian, initiated suomoto proceedings on the self-immolation of Velmurugan.
