UT govt announces Rs 20 L solatium to kin
A release from office of Home Minister A Namassivayam said that the Chief Minister held a meeting with the parents of the girl and announced that the government would pay a solatium of Rs 20 lakhs to the bereaved parents.
Puducherry CM N Rangasamy
PUDUCHERRY: Puducherry Chief Minister N Rangasamy announced a solatium of Rs 20 lakh to the parents of the nine-year-old girl who was allegedly kidnapped and murdered a few days ago in Solai Nagar here.
A release from office of Home Minister A Namassivayam said that the Chief Minister held a meeting with the parents of the girl and announced that the government would pay a solatium of Rs 20 lakhs to the bereaved parents. Namassivayam was among those who were present at the meeting held with the parents.
Lieutenant Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan visited the house of the girl to pay her last respects. Speaking to reporters, she said that stern action would be taken against those involved in the heinous crime and added that justice would be done in a week’s time.
Former Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry Kiran Bedi in a voice message through whatsapp on Wednesday said that the Puducherry government should reduce its dependence on generation of income only from sale of liquor. “I want to share the replies to a questionnaire received from a journalist (in the wake of the incident of death of the school girl). Instead of depending on generating revenue from sale of liquor, the territorial government could go in for tapping the revenue from several other sources such as better governance and municipal management,” she said.
Kiran Bedi who was Lieutenant Governor for nearly five years from 2016, also urged the police to step up its searches and seizures on places of possible drug sale so that it could be minimised. The former IPS officer also suggested opening more drug rehabilitation centres, both outside and inside the prisons.
Parents should also play a role in managing their sons returning home drunk at night, she said. She called for an increase in social intelligence gathering by the police in collaboration with community policing to find out where drugs are possibly sold, and make preventive arrests.
The Puducherry AIADMK on Wednesday announced a bandh would be observed here on March 8 to condemn the failure of the government to curb drug menace. Party secretary A Anbalagan said that the recent incident of sexual harassment and murder was a shameful incident scarring the image of Puducherry. The culprits had inflicted torture on the girl under the influence of drugs.