The state cabinet at an emergency meeting here on Friday, strongly condemned the bomb blasts by terrorists, that killed innocent people.
The cabinet meeting observed silence for two minutes paying homage to those killed in the ghastly blasts that rocked the Dilsukhnagar area of the city on Thursday evening.
Information minister D K Aruna briefed the media after the cabinet meeting along with ministers Pitani Satyanarayana, Bala Raju and Prasad. She said the cabinet congratulated the Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy who rushed to the blast site immediately and announced an exgratia of Rs. 6 lakhs to each of the next of kin of the victims. She said the cabinet also decided to pay Rs. 6 lakhs to those totally disabled and Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 1 lakh to the injured. The cabinet appealed to people not to believe roumers.
Aruna said the cabinet decided that the government should bear the total medical expenditure of the injured. She said so far 16 persons died and 117 were injured in the blasts. The condition of four of the injured is serious, she added. The cabinet thanked the union government for rushing investigators of the National Security Agency to help the state police immediately after the blasts. The cabinet also thanked the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad for expressing their solidarity.
The cabinet condemned the opposition charge that the blasts were the result of intelligence failure on the part of the government. Admitting that the state government received information about possible attacks, minister Pitani said police were on their job as none had any idea where exactly the blasts would occur. The ministers said the government was taking all steps possible to protect law and order. When asked if it was not a failure of the government as it had counter intelligence agencies and Octopus, Pitani parried the question stating that there was no specific information.
It is learnt that ministers recommended to the Chief Minister to set up fast track courts to try such cases and also provide one job to a member of the families of each of the accused.(NSS)