Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Vijay, on his first visit to Karur since the September stampede that killed 41 persons at his rally, on Friday blamed the police for neither alerting him about the increasing crowd at the site, nor taking steps to cancel the event, PTI reported.

The stampede took place on September 27 after Vijay’s rally in the district when he was addressing supporters from his campaign vehicle. The first information report alleged that while permission had been granted for 10,000 attendees, more than 25,000 persons gathered at the venue. The Supreme Court had ordered an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the stampede in October.

Addressing a public meeting in Karur, Vijay said on Friday that the deaths had deeply pained him.

“The police could have alerted us that the crowd was swelling and became unmanageable to control,” PTI quoted the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam leader as saying. “The police have all the right to cancel the meeting. Without doing so, the police escorted us on the highway.”

Vijay added that he had fully trusted the police. “Who is responsible for this?” the news agency quoted him as having asked. “Under whose instructions was all this done?”

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam was in power in the state at the time. In May, the TVK emerged as the single-largest party in the Assembly elections and Vijay became the chief minister.

On Thursday, Vijay also announced that his party will construct a memorial for those who died in the stampede, PTI reported.

HC nod for jobs to victims’ families

The Madras High Court on Friday allowed the TVK-led government to give government jobs to the families of those who were killed in the stampede, Live Law reported. The appointments would be temporary and subject to judicial review, the bench added.

It also asked the member secretary of the Public Service Commission to file a report with respect to the guidelines to be followed while making the compassionate appointments and whether such guidelines were followed in the present case, the legal news outlet reported.

The court made the observations in a plea filed by a lawyer from Madurai.

The petitioner submitted that there is no uniform policy for providing permanent government employment in such cases of tragedy. He also contended that when government employment is provided in connection with one incident, it would raise concerns related to the constitutional rights of equality and equal opportunity.

Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.