West Bengal govt announces compensation for Stephen Court fire victims

The opposition in West Bengal assembly today staged a walk out demanding resignation of the fire services minister accusing him of mishandling the Park Street blaze that claimed 24 lives, even as the government announced Rs2 lakh as compensation to the next of kin of the victims.

Critical over the handling of the fire, opposition members demanded fire services minister Pratim Chatterjee's resignation or dismissal.

"The minister doesn't have moral responsibility to continue. He should resign owning all responsibility or should be sacked from the ministry," leader of the Opposition Partha Chatterjee of Trinamool Congress and CLP leader Manas Bhuniya demanded.

Bhuniya said the minister's performance during earlier incidents of fire was miserable and probe reports of many cases were yet to be tabled. 

All Trinamool Congress members walked out when speaker H A Halim refused to accept their demand to defer the day's business to discuss the unprecedented fire. 

Announcing the compensation of Rs2 lakh to the next of kin of each victim's family in the assembly, the fire services minister said the toll has mounted to 24 while another 24 remained missing and 13 injured were admitted to different hospitals.

Stating that most of the bodies could not be identified, he said help of forensic experts has been sought to ascertain the cause of the fire.