Athwale to ask PM Modi, FM Sitharaman for compensation to Serum Institute after fire incident

Union Minister Ramdas Athawale will write a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman asking them to provide compensation to the Serum Institute of India (SII) in Pune as they have suffered a loss of over Rs 1,000 crores due a recent fire incident.

A massive fire had broken out at the SII's Manjari plant here on January 21 in which five people lost their lives.

"I will be writing a letter to Finance Minister and Prime Minister and ask them to provide some compensation to Serum Institute of India as they have suffered a loss of over 1,000 crores in the fire incident," Athawale said at a press conference here on Sunday.

The Union Minister also said that he will demand Adar Poonawalla, CEO and owner of SII, to provide a job for the kin who had lost their lives in the massive fire incident.

"I will also be asking Poonawala to provide jobs to the kin of people who had died in the incident," he said.

The Minister also opined that the causes of the fire need to be investigated. "Now why did this happened, whether it was an accident or something else, all need to be investigated," he said.

However, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday confirmed that an investigation is currently underway to find the cause and other details of the fire that broke out at SII facility.

"An inquiry is currently being conducted. Until the investigation report comes in, we cannot come to any conclusions," Thackeray said while addressing a press conference.

Meanwhile, targeting the Maharashtra state government over the ongoing farmers' protest, Athwale said that Thackrey and NCP chief Sharad Pawar should support the Centre's farm laws instead of supporting the protests. He also said the farmers were being adamant at this time and that if the government took back the laws, it will not be good for the democracy of the country.

( With inputs from ANI )