Karnataka   

Assembly mourns Kumbakonam deaths

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, JULY 20. The Legislative Assembly today mourned the death of a large number of schoolchildren at Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu on Friday, and the members cautioned the Government against the dangerous state of many of the schools across the State.

It was the Chief Minister, N. Dharam Singh, who suggested that the House include the death of the children in Kumbakonam in its obituary references to the BJP member of the Lok Sabha, Ramachandra Veerappa, and the former MP and eminent economist, K. Venkatagiri Gowda. Thereupon the Speaker, Krishna, included the reference to the macabre incident at Kumbakonam.

The Industries Minister, P.G.R. Sindhia, said the tragedy was a lesson for everyone. He welcomed the announcement of the release of an amount of Rs. 1 crore from the Prime Minister's Relief Fund made by the Congress President, Sonia Gandhi.

Some of the members noted that midday meals for schoolchildren were being prepared in kitchens with thatched roofs. Combustible materials should be kept away from schools.

Araga Jnanendra (BJP) spoke of the dilapidated condition of innumerable schools in the State, which might collapse. At present, various agencies such as taluk panchayats were trying to pass on the responsibility for the maintenance of school buildings to others.

The CPI(M) member G.V. Srirama Reddy said the Kumbakonam tragedy would go down in history as the second "Kumbakonam school incident." The first related to the turning way of the great mathematician, Srinivasa Ramanujan, from a school in that town in the first decade of the 20th Century. Ramanujan had been considered unfit for studies.

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