Published: Friday November 20, 2009 MYT 1:00:00 PM
Updated: Friday November 20, 2009 MYT 3:58:50 PM
Bridge tragedy: Parents file RM105m suit against Govt, others (Update)
By CHAN LI LEEN and IVAN LOH
IPOH: The fathers of the three pupils who drowned in the recent Kuala Dipang bridge collapse tragedy have filed a RM105mil suit against the Malaysian Government and Education Ministry.
The suit, which was filed on their behalf by their lawyers at the High Court here Friday, named nine others including bridge donor GS Synergy Sdn Bhd and contractor CWL Enterprise as defendants.
The others are the heads of SJK (T) Mambang Diawan and SJK (T) Gopeng, the Kinta Selatan education officer, Perak Education director, Kampar district council president, Perak Public Works Department director and the Kuala Dipang 1Malaysia Camp commandant.
Plaintiffs K. Mageswaran, K. Vasudevan and T. Nathan are each seeking RM35mil in general damages and a further RM100,000 in exemplary damages besides RM19,120 in special damages, and costs.
They claim that the deaths of M. Devatharshini, 11, V. Divyashree, 12, and N. Dinadevi, 11, on Oct 26 had been due to the defendants’ negligence.
Speaking to reporters outside the court, their lawyer A. Sivanesan said the papers would be served on the named defendants in the next few days.
Asked why he had decided to file the suit, Nathan said it was not about the money as all the money in the world would not bring back Dinadevi.
”We want to know who’s fault it is and make sure everyone else knows about it too so that no other parents would have to lose their children like this,” he said.
Vasudevan stressed that he wanted justice to be served.
”We want the teachers and the Government to be held responsible,” he said.
Nathan added: “I had sent my daughter to school but she was returned to me in a coffin.”
Also representing the plaintiffs are Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham, M. Kulasegaran, Nga Kor Ming, Keshvinder Singh and A. Magesan.
Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abd Kadir said the Government would not stop the grieving families from suing it.
“This is about lives. The parents have lost their children and it is their right to pursue the matter,” he told reporters after a study loan presentation ceremony here.
“Most importantly is that we want to ensure that the Kuala Dipang incident would not be covered up,” he added.
He said the Government was still working to provide concrete studies and suggestion for the future so that similar tragedies would not recur.
Dr Zambry added that the government was not conducting the investigation to gain political mileage.
The three primary school pupils attending a 1Malaysia camp drowned after the suspension bridge they were on collapsed into the Sungai Kampar on Oct 26. Nineteen other schoolchildren survived the tragedy.
Two committees were established to investigate the incident, one under the Education Ministry and the other under the Perak Pakatan Rakyat.
The ministry’s committee is expected to file its report soon, while the Pakatan committee said that the collapsed suspension bridge was an illegal structure and the teachers who were supposed to have been supervising them were not present.
Related Stories:
Kampar bridge tragedy: Teachers to get counselling
Kampar tragedy: Bridge was illegal, teachers missing
Pakatan to call for inquiry into Dipang tragedy
Scrap indemnity forms, Education Ministry told
Report on bridge tragedy ready in a couple of weeks
Dina Deve’s dad falls and passes out before funeral
Bridge tragedy: ‘They’re all killing them!’
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