The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu has announced Rs 3 lakh solatium to each of the families of the three men from the state who were killed in an accident at a ceramic factory in Sudan in December 2019.
In a press statement, CM Edappadi K Palaniswami said that the state government had requested the central government to do everything possible to bring the bodies of the deceased to their hometowns in Tamil Nadu. “Upon our request, the bodies were sent to their native towns in Tamil Nadu,” the statement said.
The deceased are Ramakrishnan from Nagapattinam district, Jayakumar and Rajasekar from Cuddalore district. Conveying his condolences and sympathies to the families of the three men, the Chief Minister announced Rs 3 lakh compensation to each of the families, to be paid from the Tamil Nadu Public Relief Fund.
Around 23 people, including 18 Indians, were killed and 130 people were seriously injured in a major blast at a ceramic factory in Khartoum, the capital city of Sudan on December 3, 2019. The blast took place when a truck was offloading gas at the factory.
The Sudanese government had issued a statement immediately after the incident, which stated that a blast in the gas tanker triggered the fire at the ceramic factory.
"Preliminary observations indicate lack of necessary safety measures and equipment at the factory, in addition to random storage of flammable materials," the statement read.
According to the Indian Embassy in Sudan, over 60 Indian citizens were working in the factory and 53 were present at the factory at the time of the accident. The victims, who were stuck in the accident, were from Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, New Delhi and Gujarat.