LG Sinha, Jitendra, Azad express grief
STATE TIMES NEWS
Bhadarwah/Jammu: Four senior officials of the Roads and Buildings department were killed on Monday after their vehicle skidded off a road and plunged into a deep gorge in Jammu and Kashmir’s Doda district, police said.
Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and Union minister Jitendra Singh expressed their grief over the accident, and termed the death of the officials as a huge loss to the department and the society.
The accident occurred near Assar on the Batote-Kishtwar national highway at around 10.45 am, local Station House Officer Bhuvinder Kotwal said.
He said the vehicle, carrying the four-member team including three senior officers, rolled down 200-metre into the gorge, resulting in the death of executive engineer Rafiq Shah from Poonch, assistant executive engineer Kamal Kishore Sharma from Udhampur and driver Mohd Hafeez of Doda.
Superintending engineer Suresh Kumar was critically injured in the accident. He was rushed to the Government Medical College hospital in Jammu but succumbed to injuries, the official said.
“Kumar was brought to the GMC with critical injuries and breathed his last at around 7.20 pm,” hospital principal Dr Shashi Sudan Sharma told PTI.
Block Medical Officer (BMO), Assar, Dr Tanveer Ahmad had earlier said the injured official is being referred to GMC hospital Jammu for specialised treatment.
The BMO said Kumar’s condition is stable but he would be referred to GMC hospital as the CT scan facility is not available here and the road leading to GMC Doda is blocked due to a landslide.
However, another doctor said Kumar’s condition deteriorated all of a sudden apparently due to internal injuries.
Kotwal said a preliminary investigation suggested that the accident occurred due to low visibility because of foggy conditions and heavy rainfall.
“Pained by the loss of lives due to an accident in Doda. My deepest condolences to the bereaved families. May the injured recover soon. Directed the district administration to provide all possible assistance,” Sinha wrote on Twitter.
Expressing condolences over the tragic road accident, Union minister Jitendra Singh termed the death of the R&B officials as a “huge loss to the department as well as the society.”
Meanwhile, Chairman Democratic Azad Party & former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad also expressed shock at the untimely, accidental death of senior engineers and a driver in a road mishap in Doda district of the J&K UT. In his condolence message, Azad remarked that it was a matter of great sorrow and disbelief at the unfortunate death of Executive Engineer, Rafiq Shah, Assistant Executive Engineer, Kamal Kishore Sharma and their driver Mohammed Hafeez. The officers who died in this accident were too dedicated and known for their honest credentials. May God give them highest place in heaven. I pay my heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families. Azad has urged Governor J&K to take effective steps to check road accidents and pass the directions to the traffic department to take adequate and stringent measures to check the recurrence of road accidents.