News Analysis India

Tag: Sidhi bus tragedy

  • MP canal tragedy kills multiple members of many families 

    By Express News Service
    BHOPAL: Tuesday’s bus tragedy in Sidhi district of Madhya Pradesh has caused irreparable damage to at least five families by snatching away multiple members from their lives forever.

    While a young couple died along with their infant daughter, a young woman and her two-year-old son too lost their lives in the mishap. Another young woman on her way to appear for the ANM selection exam died with her brother in law, while a former Janpad Panchayat member and Congress leader was also killed along with her husband. The tragedy also claimed the lives of a senior Ayurveda doctor and his ANM aspirant daughter.

    A family in Kusumi town of Sidhi lost four members of their family in the killer mishap, including 30-year-old Vishwanath Yadav, his 28-year-old wife Rajkali Yadav, the couple’s 3-months-old daughter Namrata and Vishwanath’s younger cousin Pradip Yadav.

    “Since the COVID-19 lockdown, my brother Vishwanath Yadav, a guest teacher at a government school was sitting home sans any earnings. But his wife Rajkali was determined to improve the financial condition of the family by cracking the auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM) recruitment exam for which they were on the way to Satna by the bus. Since they didn’t know much about the exam centre in Satna district, my cousin Pradip who was a college student,  also accompanied them,” said Vishwanath’s elder brother Jaganath Yadav, while taking home all four bodies for cremation.

    READ HERE | At least 45 dead after overcrowded bus plunges into canal in MP

    The accident claimed the lives of two members of another family of Sidhi district, including 25-year-old Kavita Yadav and her brother-in-law 22-year-old Kalyan Singh Yadav. A resident of Kathar Bodraha village in Gopadbanas block, Kavita left home with brother-in-law Kalyan early in the morning, asking other family members to tell her 3-year-old daughter Devanshi that she’ll be back in the evening after taking the recruitment test.

    “But she’ll never return now, her husband and my younger brother Jeevendra who works in a factory in Gujarat are returning to Sidhi after coming to know about the death. We don’t know how to tell three-year-old Devanshi about her mother’s death, who is repeatedly asking us when will her mother return,” Kavita’s elder brother-in-law Subedas Yadav said.

    The Saket family in Kukudijhar village of Sidhi district lost its head, 50-year-old government Ayurvedic doctor Ramsukh Saket and his eldest among the five daughters Amarjyoti Saket (22).

    In Ward No.7 locality of Rampur Naikin town of Sidhi district, a private coaching teacher lost wife Pinki Gupta (25) and two-year-old son Atharwa Gupta in the mishap, in which his father-in-law had a lucky escape. “My wife and child along with her father were on the way to parents’ place in Nagod (Satna). My son was retrieved dead from the bus, while my wife was alive when she was taken out of the bus by the rescue team, but died later at the hospital. Had the rescue work begun in time, she wouldn’t have died,” said an inconsolable Anil Kumar Gupta.

    The Tarka village in Bahri block of Sidhi district lost its former Janpad Panchayat member and Congress leader Sushila Prajapati (27) and her husband Pushpraj Prajapati (30) to the mishap. Sushila was on way to take the ANM exam like many others who died in the mishap.

    The couple has left behind two kids — two-year-old daughter Ruhi and five-year-old son Utkarsh, who are now the responsibility of Pushpraj’s elder brother Prithvi Raj Prajapati.

  • At least 45 dead after overcrowded bus plunges into canal in MP

    By Express News Service
    BHOPAL: A bus with more than 50 passengers on board plunged into a canal in Rampur Naikin area in Madhya Pradesh’s Sidhi district early in the morning on Tuesday, killing 45 people. 

    While 37 bodies have been retrieved from the bus, seven more bodies were retrieved from the canal. One woman, who was rescued, died in the hospital. Six more people were rescued or swam to safety.

    Among the dead was a four-year-old child. Sixteen young women who died in the tragedy were heading to Satna district to appear in the Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM) exam.

    Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan postponed all major events in the state capital, including the virtual house warming of one lakh beneficiaries of the PM Housing Scheme in Bhopal (which was to be attended through video conferencing by Union home minister Amit Shah also) and the state cabinet meeting too was postponed. The CM, who reportedly also postponed the events for Wednesday also, including his Damoh district tour, announced Rs 5 lakh assistance to the kin of each of the deceased.

    A sum of Rs 2 lakh ex-gratia each to the kin of each of the deceased and Rs 50,000 for the injured has been announced out of the PM Relief Fund, official sources said.

    While maintaining that those found wanting in the mishap won’t be spared, the CM said two ministers, including cabinet minister Tulsi Silawat and minister of state Ram Khelawan Patel, have been sent to the accident site from Bhopal for taking stock of the situation at Ground Zero.

    The accident happened in Sarda Patna village at around 8 am, when the private bus with around 50 passengers plunged into the canal which draws water from the Bansagar Dam that supplies water to UP and Bihar.

    Bus took alternative route due to prolonged traffic jam on main route

    According to informed sources, the bus regularly travelled through the hilly Chhuiya Ghati highway main route connecting Sidhi and Satna districts. But owing to prolonged traffic jams on the Chhuiya Ghati hilly road for the last three-four days, the bus took an alternative route through Baghwar area and while going at high speed plunged into the canal from the bridge at around 8 am.

    While seven persons swam to safety with the help of villagers, others either remained stuck in the 32-seater bus or else went missing in the canal, which had a high water current.

    With the CM directing to stop the flow of water into the canal from Bansagar Dam (located in Shahdol district), the rescue operations which began at around 8.45 am, could gather momentum at around 9.30 am. SDRF and Home Guards teams were pressed into action from Sidhi and adjoining districts, a NDRF team from Varanasi (UP), which was already camping in MP’s Sidhi district too rushed to the spot and started rescue operations at around 9.30 am.

    With the NDRF team joining rescue operations, the bus was extracted at around 11.30 am from the canal, where the flow of water had toned down, due to stopping of water release from the dam.

    “Till 2 pm, as many as 37 bodies have been retrieved from the canal and the bus, while a search is underway for the other missing people, whose number isn’t known,” an NDRF source who is part of the rescue operations told The New Indian Express.

    According to official sources, the bus which had a capacity to carry 32-34 passengers had around 50 passengers on board. With 37 bodies already retrieved and seven persons swimming to safety, four to five persons could still be missing in the canal.

    According to MP transport minister Govind Singh Rajput, “I’m meeting the CM to brief him about the conditions on ground. The permit of the bus has been terminated, as it had taken an alternative route of seven km. The state’s transport commissioner has been tasked with conducting a thorough probe into the matter and the additional transport commissioner has been sent to the spot.”