The Bharatiya Janata Party Monday demanded a time bound enquiry into the stampede at a city corporation school, in which 42 persons were killed, saying that only such a step would ensure that similar incidents do not recur in future.
"Only a speedy completion of the enquiry will ensure that such incidents do not recur in future," BJP vice president Venkaiah Naidu, who visited the injured at the Royapettah government hospital in Chennai, told reporters.
Pointing out that six persons had lost their lives in a similar stampede in November 2004, he said the government had not learnt any lessons from the previous experience.
He suggested that relief materials be handed over to beneficiaries at their houses, instead of asking them to collect it at a public place. "The government has adequate machinery and it should not be a problem for them to do this," he said.
The BJP leader said that the government should take care of the affected families, whose earning members had perished in the stampede. These families should be given employment opportunities or interest free loans with 50 per cent subsidy to set up small businesses, he said.
The government should also take care of the education of the children, whose fathers or mothers died in the stampede.
He demanded that the Tamil Nadu government convene an all party meet to discuss the relief and rehabilitation programme.
A transparent policy should be adopted in preparing the list of beneficiaries, a copy of which should be made available to representatives of political parties, to prevent complaints of misuse and corruption, he said.
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