Number of Keralites killed in Kuwait fire tragedy rises to 24
At least 49 workers were killed on Wednesday in the fire at a building where a construction firm run by a Kerala businessman had housed its employees.
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19 Keralites, including engineers and office staff, died in a Kuwait apartment fire. (PTI)The Kerala Government said on Thursday that 24 people from the state died in Wednesday’s apartment inferno in Kuwait’s Mangaf area.
An official communication from the chief minister’s office said it was understood that 24 Keralites had died in the tragedy and seven were severely injured as per available information. The cabinet, in a special meeting, decided to give a relief of Rs 5 lakh each to the families of the Keralites who perished in the Kuwait tragedy. The injured people will be given Rs 1 lakh each.
Health Minister Veena George and senior IAS officer Jeevan Babu, who is the state director of the National Health Mission, will leave for Kuwait to coordinate relief efforts and speed up the procedure to fly back the bodies of the victims.
The chief minister’s office said M A Yusuf Ali, a prominent businessman from Kerala, would give Rs 5 lakh each to the families of the deceased and another expatriate businessman, Ravi Pillai, an aid of Rs 2 lakh each.
It was feared that at least 49 workers, mostly Indian, were killed and scores injured in the fire at the multi-storey building where the construction firm NBCT, which has Kerala expatriate businessman K G Abraham as its director, had housed its employees.
The External Affairs Ministry stated on Wednesday that “most of the victims are from Kerala and other parts of southern India”.
As per the figures available, four of the Keralites who perished are from Pathanamthitta district, the home district of NBCT MD Abraham, while some others hailed from Kollam, Kasaragod, Malappuram, Kottayam and Kannur. The victims from the state included engineers, office staff and technicians of the NBCT, which has a stake in engineering, construction and allied areas.
The victims had left their families back home, some of them five-ten years ago. A few of them were planning to go home on annual leave to pick up dreams left behind during the previous visits. K Ranjith, a native of Cherkala in Kasaragod, was waiting for an air ticket to go home after two years.
A relative of Ranjith said, “During his previous visit in 2022, Ranjith constructed a new house. This time, the 33-year-old was planning a marriage.’’
The Government has abandoned the inauguration of the Loka Kerala Sabha (a convention of expatriates from Kerala), slated to begin in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday, in the wake of the Kuwait tragedy.
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