Odisha minister in Chennai to ensure medical aid for building collapse survivors

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar/Chennai, July 2:

Odisha Labour minister Prafulla Mallick and Labour commissioner Shalini Pandit today reached Chennai to oversee the rescue efforts at the site of the building collapse in the city on Saturday in which 42 people, including five from the state, have so far been confirmed killed.

Three others from the state have been rescued from the debris while about 25 more are still feared trapped inside the debris.

Prafulla Mallick, Minister, Steel & Mines & Labour
Prafulla Mallick, Minister, Steel & Mines & Labour

The minister and the labour commissioner would meet survivors from Odisha at the Sri Ramachandra hospital in the Tamil Nadu capital.

They would also liaise with officials of the Tamil Nadu government in an effort to ensure adequate medical attention for them, besides making arrangements for their safe return to the state.

The minister and the labour commissioner rushed to Chennai this morning as per the direction of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who had a telephonic conversation with his Tamil Nadu counterpart J Jayalalitha last evening.

On his arrival in Chennai, Mallick lauded the Tamil Nadu government on its rescue efforts.

Meanwhile, the bodies of the three of the five Odia labourers killed in the mishap —Amar Kumar Rout (26) of Rajpur Village of Rajnagar Block and Soumya Ranjan Bauri (18) and Niranjan Kar (35) of Baradanga village under Mahakalapara block of Kendrapara district— brought by the Red Cross State Branch of Tamil Nadu, were handed over to their respective family members by the Indian Red Cross Society, Odisha State Branch with the help of District Red Cross Branch in Kendrapada this afternoon.

The district administration later provided Rs 2000 each to the family members of the three deceased to perform their last rites.

The District Red Cross Branch, Kendrapara has announced an ex gratia of Rs 10000 to the legal heirs of the family of the deceased as financial assistance from its contingency fund.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has already announced an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh each to the family of the labourers killed and Rs 50,000 each to the three seriously injured in the mishap.

Meanwhile, officials of the Tamil Nadu government said the death toll in the collapse of the under-construction 11-storeyed building near suburban Porur had touched 42.

A total of 69 persons have been pulled out dead or alive from under the debris of the collapsed structure by rescue personnel since Saturday when the mishap had occurred.

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