The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the central and Tamil Nadu governments on a petition seeking compensation for the 94 students who died in a fire in a primary school in Tamil Nadu’s Kumbakonam town in July 2004. An Supreme court bench of justice Dalveer Bhandari and justice Deepak Verma issued notice on the petition by the Kumbakonam fire tragedy victims’ association.
The petitioner has also demanded a 12% per annum interest on the compensation since the date of tragedy — July 16, 2004.
The next kith and kin of the deceased were earlier paid Rs 1 lakh, Rs 25,000 were given to those seriously injured and Rs 10,000 were paid to those with simple injuries as ex-gratia payment.
On the day of the incident, fire broke out in Sri Krishna Primary School in Thanjavur district, killing 94 students and leaving 18 with grievous injuries.