STATE TIMES NEWS
UDHAMPUR: Eleven people were killed and over 20 others injured on Friday when the bus they were travelling in skidded off the road and fell into a gorge in Udhampur District.
The vehicle (JK14-7786 )carrying 32 to 35 passengers was on its way to Basantgarh in Ramnagar Tehsil when the mishap occurred in the Kiya area, said Udhampur Deputy Commissioner, Shahid Iqbal Choudhary.
Eleven persons were killed in the accident, including one woman and a child, he said, adding that 20 others were injured and are being hospitalised.
Choudhary said that the mishap may have been caused due to human error.
The district administration launched rescue and relief operation immediately. Seven critically injured persons were airlifted from Ramnagar to Jammu for treatment at GMC Hospital. Eight ambulances and an equal number of rescue vans were pressed into action.
The Deputy Commissioner on the directions of State Government, provided an immediate relief of Rs 1 Lakh each to next kin of deceased, Rs 25,000 to critically injured and Rs 10,000 each to other injured.
Meanwhile, a Magisterial enquiry has been ordered into the incident to ascertain cause of accident since the 2013-make bus was in roadworthy condition and the site was reportedly not accident prone. Addl DC Angrez Singh Rana has been deputed as Magistrate for enquiry by DC Udhampur.
The District Police with help of locals retrieved the bodies and rescued around 30 persons out of which 20 were seriously injured and seven critically injured.
Governor N. N. Vohra has expressed grief over the loss of lives in a bus accident which was on its way to Basantgarh in Udhampur District.
In a condolence message the Governor has conveyed his sympathies to the members of the bereaved families and prayed for peace to the departed souls. He wished speedy recovery to those injured in this accident.
The Governor has announced ex-gratia relief of Rs. 1 lakh each to the kith and kin of those who died in this tragic accident.
The Raj Bhavan Spokesperson stated that the Governor has called for sustained efforts to substantially bring down the incidence of fatal road accidents in the State.
He expressed serious concern about the urgent need to devote systemic attention to this vital problem and directed the Chief Secretary to urgently review the status of implementation of Road safety Action Plan. It may be recalled that the Governor had fixed a clear timeframe for the implementation of Road Safety Action Plan in Jammu and Kashmir in a high level meeting held in the Civil Secretariat on 14th February 2015, during the period of Governor’s Rule before installation of the PDP-BJP Government.
The Governor directed that all the concerned enforcement agencies should sternly deal with all cases of overloading and other traffic violations and no unfit vehicle should be allowed to ply on the roads under any circumstances. He particularly urged the DGP and IGP Traffic to enforce stringent measures to check overloading of transport vehicles, check over speeding and carry out a complete verification of all those who drive buses and trucks on the accident prone roads to particularly assess whether they are trained to ply vehicles in hilly areas.
Union Minister of State and Member of Parliament Dr Jitendra Singh spoke to DC Udhampur and provided him an amount of Rs 6 lakh for assistance of aggrieved families whose members were lost in the accident.
Injured patients were discharged after treatment from Sub-District Hospital while seriously injured passengers were admitted in district Hospital Udhampur.
DIG Udhampur-Reasi, Surinder Gupta, SSP Suleiman Choudhary, ADC Angrez Singh Rana, CMO, SDM, SDPO and other officers coordinated the rescue and relief arrangements at spot of accident and arranged shifting of injured to Sub District Hospital Ramnagar.
The eleven dead have been identified as Sunita Kumari (40 yrs) wife of Daleep Singh resident of Blota- chigla, Sadhu Ram (70 yrs) son of Sunder resident of Keya, Om Parkash (25 yrs) son of Jagdish Chand resident of Rasli-Gader, Ashok Kumar(45 yrs) son of Govind Ram resident of Udhampur, Des Raj (48 yrs) son of Munshi Ram resident of Keya, Hukum Chand (35 yrs) son of Jodh Mal resident of Basantgarh, Neelam Kumari (22 yrs) wife of Amit Gupta resident of Basantgarh, Sudesh Kumar (38 yrs) son of Kundi Ram, resident of Dehari, Radhu Devi (3yrs) daughter of Gandhi resident of Udhampur and Mohinder Kumar(30 yrs) driver son of Rattan Lal resident of Kirmu.
The list of seriously injured include Sham Parsad (26yrs) son of Om Dutt resident of Chatrari, Arshad Hussain (26yrs) son of Rukam Din resident of B’garh, Duni Chand (71yrs) son of Punnu resident of Chatrari, Narinder Singh(12yrs) son of Swarn Singh resident of Panara ,Mohan Lal (27yrs) son of Suraj Parkash resident of Prey, Yashpaul (18yrs) son of Hem Raj resident of Rasli Gaderan, Balbir Singh (14yrs) son of Tara Chand resident of Balota, Jaitun Begum(27yrs ) wife of Abdul Rashid resident of Lodra, Rakesh Singh (24yrs) son Hukum Singh resident of Kogarmarh, Bimla devi (30yrs) wife of Bittu Ram resident of Latti Dhuna, Khem Raj (12yrs) son of Duni Chand resident of Chatrari, Chhatto (67yrs) son of Mania resident of Laddana, Gul Mohammad (45) son of Akbar resident of Sang, Sunita Kumari (35yrs) wife of Kewal resident of Kadwa, Seema wife of Gandhi resident of Udhampur,Ashok Kumar(27yrs) son of Khinu Ram resident of Laddana, Artish Kumar (32yrs) son of Dhani Ram resident of Joffer, Rekha Devi (34yrs) wife of Kirpal resident of Joffer, Hans Raj (35yrs) son of Chandu resident of Incha and Reva (30yrs) wife of Artish Kumar resident of Joffer.
While other passengers included Mohd Rafiq(26yrs) wife of Saraj Din resident of Joffer, Rangesh Singh (21yrs) son of Kirpal Singh resident of Joffer, Subhash Chander (22yrs) son of Prem Singh resident of Joffer, Jeevan Kumar (22yrs) son of Suram Chand resdent of Laddana, Sudesh Singh (46yrs) son of Anant Ram resident of Balota, Sunita Devi (40yrs) wife of Yog Raj resident of Chatrari, Guddi Devi (27yrs) wife of Kuldeep Kumar resident of Lehar, Meenakshi (20yrs) wife of Sushil Kumar resident of Ramnagar, Amit Kumar (32yrs) son of Madan Lal resident of B’garh and Balban Singh(19yrs) son of Suram Chand resident of B’garh.
