After builders meeting,TN victims had gone on holiday

After Saturdays meeting was over,we all dispersed in smaller groups,each with their own plans.

The eight people from Tamil Nadu who were killed in the Buddha Air crash outside Kathmandu were part of a group of builders from Tiruchi who had attended the annual general body meeting of the Builders Association of India (BAI) in New Delhi on Friday.

Some had also attended the All-India managing committee meeting the next day,before heading out for short vacations.

After Saturdays meeting was over,we all dispersed in smaller groups,each with their own plans. Some went to the Wagah border,our group came to Shimla,and those from Tiruchi went to Nepal to see Mount Everest and other places, said their senior colleague,L Moorthi,a BAI office-bearer,over the phone from Shimla.

One of the eight Tamil Nadu builders who were killed M Manimaran was chairman of the Tiruchi wing of the BAI; another,R M Meenakshisundaram,was a relative of former union minister S Raghupathy of the DMK.

As news of the crash broke,families of the victims made unsuccessful efforts to contact their kin. An incorrect list of the dead was initially released by the Nepalese authorities,but the worst fears of several families were confirmed after a corrected list was made available.

Members of the Tamil Nadu delegation to Delhi were in shock. We all flew together from Chennai,and only on Saturday,after the managing committee meeting was over,we all had lunch together. I returned to Chennai instead of joining any of the groups, said Mu Mohan,a former chairman of BAIs Tamil Nadu chapter.

Members of the victims families will be flown to Kathmandu to identify the bodies,which will then be brought to Tiruchi by tomorrow evening or on Tuesday,said S Ayyanathan,state secretary of the association. Tiruchy MP N Siva has been holding discussions with the authorities,colleagues and families to make necessary arrangements.

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Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa offered her condolences to the families of the victims.

Former chief minister M Karunanidhi expressed shock. The fact that 10 of them were Indians and eight hailed from Tiruchirappalli is a matter of grief. Some of them were relatives of Raghupathy and Selvaraj (former ministers), he said in a statement.