Chennai: Family members of two workers who died after inhaling toxic gas while repairing a motor inside a stormwater drain in Kodungaiyur organised a sit-in protest at Government Stanley Hospital on Tuesday, refusing to receive the bodies. They demanded that a minister meet them and address their demands.Around 20 relatives of Naveen Kumar, 34, and Asmath Basha, 38, gathered outside the hospital mortuary and accused the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) of failing to ensure workers’ safety“Lives have been lost, but there is nobody to ask us what happened. Not even one corporation officer has come here. We want the minister to come. We will sit here until then, and we will not take the bodies,” the family members said. Around noon, Tamil Nadu Housing Board chairman V Siva met the protestors and handed over a cheque of ₹30 lakh each to the families.Preethi, Naveen’s wife, was at the hospital with their one-year-old daughter. She said she had not yet seen her husband’s face after his death. The family, which depended on his daily wage, sought a job for her.I Paranthamen of DMK criticised the silence of ministers and officials over the incident, questioning why the two ministers in Chennai had not issued a statement or visited the families.Naveen, from West Tambaram, and Asmath, from Vellore district, died on Monday evening while repairing an electric motor inside a 15-foot-deep stormwater drain on Thendral Nagar 3rd Street in Kodungaiyur. They were engaged by a private firm contracted by GCC.
