VILLUPURAM: The grieving families of the Bahrain fire victims are distraught over the delay in bringing the bodies to their villages. Some 10 villages in Villupuram and Cuddalore districts lost 15 workers in the fire.

The residents of Koothakudi, Varanjaram, Ogaiyur, Sirumangalam, Perumangalam and Kottaiyur in Villupuram districts, and Maankulam, Sethuvarayankuppam, Melakurichi, Neeramani and Ko. Kothanur in Cuddalore districts consider the incident a personal tragedy.

The victims mostly belong to the Udayar community. It seems the concept of keeping up with the Joneses seems to be quite alluring for the villagers, who would otherwise be slogging at odd jobs in the farms and leading a hand-to-mouth existence.

Barring two or three, all the victims were youngsters aged 21 to 27. The deaths of the victims have had an adverse effect on their families,pushing them deeper into penury.

Almost all the families of the victims are reported to have borrowed money at exorbitant rates of interest to send their wards abroad.

A typical case is that of Thukkiyan of Sirumangalam.

All his three sons met with tragic ends: his elder son Sakthivel was killed in a road accident two years ago, his younger son Rajni was electrocuted a year ago, and his second son Kumar perished in the Bahrain fire.

Devendran, who runs a shop at Sathuvarayankuppam, lost his only son Raja in the tragedy.

Malarkodi (57) of Maankulam was full of fond hopes that her son Sivaprakash would earn a handsome salary in Bahrain, so she could get her vision corrected. But now, she is saddled with a debt of Rs. 2 lakh.

Santhi of Koothakudi, who grazes sheep for a living, had pledged her jewellery to mobilise funds to send her brother K. Kannadasan abroad. He went there only six months ago.

The villagers feel that the State Government's compensation of Rs. 2 lakh would just about suffice to settle the loans. Meanwhile, the authorities have deployed police and revenue personnel in Chennai to bring the bodies to the respective villages, which is likely to happen by Wednesday.

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