Kerala CM Vijayan seeks suitable monetary compensation from Nepal govt to kin of 8 deceased tourists
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday sought the urgent intervention of the External Affairs Ministry for "suitable monetary compensation" from the Nepal government to relatives of eight tourists from Kerala who died at a resort in that country. In a letter to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, he said their untimely deaths have been a "severe blow to their families."
"Prima facie, it is clear that there has been negligence on the part of the service providers and there appears to be a failure of regulatory mechanisms which ought to have been in place," Vijayan said in the letter.
He said the Indian government should request the Nepal government to conduct a thorough inquiry into the matter. "Meanwhile, the Government of Nepal should be persuaded to give a suitable monetary compensation to the families of the victims," Vijayan said.
The state government had on January 24 sought a detailed probe into the deaths of eight Malayalee tourists, including four children. The eight Keralites, hailing from Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode, had died on January 21 following possible asphyxiation in their room at a mountainous resort in Nepal.
Praveen Nair, an IT professional from Dubai, his wife, and three children and Ranjit, also a software engineer, his wife, and a son had died in the resort.
