They Pinned Blamed On Me For Karur Stampede: Tamil Nadu CM Vijay

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Vijay on Friday declared that the Karur stampede remains the deepest wound of his political journey. He targeted the cops for failing to manage the crowd and attacked the DMK government for putting the blame on him for the tragic incident.

In his first visit to Karur since the tragedy, he addressed a massive gathering at Atlas Ground in Karur. The Tamil Nadu CM handed over job offer letters to 32 people who lost their family members in the incident that occurred on September 27, last year.

"No matter how great a height a man reaches in life, certain pains and wounds in the heart cannot be forgotten. More than anything else, the pain and wound that affected me the most is the Karur incident," ANI quoted Vijay as saying.

He recalled the events before the tragedy and claimed that his statewide yatra was an outreach programme to interact directly with the public to understand their plights. Vijay said that he had cancelled his Perambalur event following the advice from the police department.

He alleged that the cops did not alert for the Karur event.

"After finishing the Namakkal meeting, when we were coming to Karur, couldn't the Karur police have alerted us? They could have cancelled the meeting if they felt the crowd could not be controlled. They had every right to do so. Instead, they brought us to the venue. I believed them completely and even thanked the police officers that day. I never imagined such a tragedy would happen," Vijay added.

He questioned, "Who is responsible for all this? Who gave the orders? People, I ask you, was adequate police protection provided for such a huge crowd?" The incident resulted in deaths of 17 women and 10 children.

"If my picture appeared on television, children would smile and call me 'Vijay uncle'. We lost those innocent children who were like God. Even while I was grieving, people mocked me and blamed me, asking why I had 'run away and hidden'," he added.

The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister announced a memorial in honour of the 41 people who lost their lives. He wants the future generations to remember the incident to prevent such incidents.

"In order to make the coming generation aware of the conspiracy and plot against us, so that no one even thinks of another political conspiracy, we announce that a memorial will be built in Karur on behalf of our TVK," he stated.

Vijay criticised the DMK claiming that the party was involved in corruption. He also took potshots at DMK leaders Senthil Balaji and Velumani.

Madras High Court's Nod For Job Offers

The Madras High Court on Friday allowed the state government to provide government jobs to the families of the victims. However, the court has directed the government to provide jobs on temporary basis.

Justice CV Karthikeyan and Justice R Sakthivel, who heard the matter, made it clear that they were not inclined to stall the government's decision, observing that it would be "extremely narrow" for the court to second-guess a policy call taken by the executive.

"It would be extremely narrow for the court to interfere with a policy decision of the government. The state shall thus proceed with the function on the condition that employment would be on a temporary basis, subject to judicial review, and we intend to hear the matter by the end of this month, before the prospective persons to whom employment is offered, would receive their first salary," Live Law quoted the bench as stating.