KMT legislators yesterday declared an end to a dispute between the Ministry of the Interior and the Taipei City Government over earthquake compensation payments, after conciliatory remarks were made by the Minister of the Interior.
The dispute erupted in regard to how much compensation should be awarded to victims of Sunday's powerful earthquake, which took the lives of five construction workers at the site of the Taipei Financial Center.
When two cranes perched at the top of the unfinished building went hurtling to the ground, both crane operators and three other workers at the site were killed.
"The minister didn't apologize out loud, but what he expressed reflected the fact that he knew he was wrong. There is no longer any reason to boycott [the minister or the ministry]," KMT legislator Apollo Chen (
Following a KMT legislative caucus press conference on Tuesday, at which they demanded Minister of the Interior Yu Cheng-hsien (余政憲) apologize to Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Chen pressed the issue at a committee meeting yesterday.
Yu responded, "I didn't mean to criticize Mayor Ma or do anything to indicate opposition to the Taipei City Government's decision. The media created the sensation. The media are dreadful.
"The ministry respects the local government authority to decide on the amount of compensation, and the ministry will review whether the central government's standards for such compensation are fair," Yu said.
The Chinese-language newspaper ETtoday, yesterday afternoon quoted KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) as demanding that Minister Yu apologize to Ma.
KMT spokesman Wu Chin-chi (吳清基), told the Taipei Times yesterday evening that "Lien only said that Mayor Ma deserves an apology from the minister, but this doesn't equal a demand for an apology."
Officials from the ministry's Department of Social Affairs said that it had yet to receive an order to review current standards.
Under the current rules, relatives of deceased victims would receive NT$200,000 and seriously injured victims would receive NT$100,000 from the central government. Local governments are also entitled to grant compensation to victims affected by disaster.
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