Provide Rs 1 cr solatium to next of kin of those who succumb to COVID-19, says DMK President MK Stalin

New Delhi: DMK President MK Stalin on Thursday (April 16) held a meeting with his allies via video conference and later shared his video message to ask the government to provide Rs 1 cr solatium to next of kin of those who lost their lives due to coronavirus pandemic.

"We urge the government to offer special allowance and pay hikes to health workers and medical professionals and offer Rs 1 crore solatium to the bereaved families," said Stalin, adding that all ration cards holders to be granted Rs 5000 to help people in need. 

He also said, "the government prevented us from meeting face-to-face in our party HQ. Police notified that we can’t have the meetings as Section 144 is in place. We could have conducted the face-to-face meeting despite that order but we didn’t want to play politics." 

The DMK President, however, criticised AIADMK ministers for having meetings with many officials as their photos are being published in newspapers, adding "they are preventing us from having opposition leaders to meet with 11 people in attendance."

Stalin asked, "Why are the police and other authorities not stopping the ministers from holding meetings?"

Tamil Nadu today witnessed 25 new COVID-19 cases confirmed cases and the total tally of infected people rises to 1267, according to Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami. 

"In Tamil Nadu, we have 27 COVID-19 laboratories. Around 5,590 tests are being done on single day. 25 more people have detected psoitive for coronavirus today, taking the state tally of COVID-19 positive cases to 1267," said Palaniswami during the video conference in Chennai. 

Meanehile, India`s coronavirus tally crossed the 12,000 mark with the number reaching 12,380 cases on Thursday. Of these, 10477 patients are active, 1489 cured, discharged and migrated, while 940 cases were reported in the country during the last 24 hours, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.