CM aid given to family of driver who saved children

Chennai: A compensation of Rs five lakh from the Chief Minister’s Public Relief Fund was given to the parents and sons of Semalaippan, the bus driver of a private school at Vellakovil in Tiruppur district who saved the lives of the children on board the bus despite suffering a fatal heart attack.

Chief Minister MK Stalin, who announced the aid, instructed Minister of State for Tamil Development and Information MP Saminathan to visit the grieving family members of Semaliappan, who stopped the bus on the roadside when he developed chest pain on Wednesday, and hand over the cheque.

The bus was taking the children home after school on the Coimbatore-Trichy highway when the incident took place near the old Vellakoil police quarters.