Chamarajanagar: Ending a five-year fight of the family members of those who lost their lives in oxygen tragedy at the District Hospital, the State Government has accorded Government jobs to majority of 25 relatives of the victims.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy CM D.K. Shivakumar handed over appointment letters to 25 persons recruiting them to Chamarajanagar Institute of Medical Sciences (CIMS) Hospital, at a programme held to release water to 110 lakes at Devaraj Urs Stadium in Gundlupet town in the district yesterday.

Those who received the appointment letters are: Rani and Saraswati as Staff Nurses of CIMS Hospital; Arun Kumar, Satyabhama, Manjunath, Nagarathna, Poornima and Triveni as House-keeping Staff of CIMS; Shashank, Nagarathna, Nandini, Lakshmi, Asha, Kavya, Pavitra, Raghava, Jyoti, Shwetha, Pavitra, Rajappaji, Ashwini, Manu, Nanjashetty and Nagendra Swamy and another totalling 17, as ‘D’ group staff of CIMS.

With this, the Congress Government has fulfilled the promise it had made during Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Opposition Leader in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi. During his interaction with the relatives of oxygen tragedy victims, Rahul Gandhi, accompanied by Shivakumar, had assured Government jobs, if the party came to power in the State.

It may be mentioned that on May 2, 2021, as many as 34 in-patients of CIMS Hospital, had met with their tragic end due to lack of oxygen supply to the hospital. The BJP Government led by Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa was in power at the time of the incident.

After the Congress came to power in 2023 Assembly elections, the family members of the deceased, with the support of Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) workers, had staged several protests, demanding the Government to fulfil the promise.