1st JULY WAS THE DAY OF BAD OMEM FOR UTTARAKHAND

1st of July Sunday was the worst and most unfortunate day for the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand where right from morning till evening three fatal accidents occured with extremely heavy casualties sending shock waves all over the state and the country. Though tragic accidents have become the order of the day in Uttarakhand where fatal accidents occur on every third day due to the buses being over loaded, drivers being inebriated in some cases, brake failures, speedy and careless driving, deep holes on roads or due to the blunder at the blind turns etc but the one happened today near the Gweel village at Naini Danda block due to the private bus having been overloaded was the most tragic and heart rendering accident that took the toll of 48 passengers with 12 seriously injured. Just after this tragic incident another bus got overtirned after crushing against a tree at Haldwani injuring several commuters. However, there is no report of anyone being killed. While the disaster managing authorities and the chief minister including the entire state transport machinery wete involved in the rescue operations at the aforesaid accident sites highlighted nationally with the prime minister Narendra Modi and the home minister Rajnath Singh expressing their serious concern, grief and condolences towsrds the families of the deceased with a compensation of rupees two lakh to each of the deceaseds’ family another bad news arrived in the evening when a speeding MAX carrying several passengers fell down in the deep gorge seriously injuring several passengers including children profusely bleeding with deep wounds and grievous injuries. The MAX was totally damaged. So far no one has succumbed to injuroes in this accident. However, the severly injured have been addmitted to a hospital in Kotdwar. The roads of Uttarakhand have become tremendously accident prone which casualties of road accidents being witnessed on every third day. Only God knows as to when will this tragic accidental fatalities will end with the government issuing simple assurances of improving the situation by way of false commitments and promises.

The prime minister Narendra Modi has expressed his grief over the deaths of several bus commuters in Garhwal Uttarakhand and have assured of all possible help to the bereaved families. The prime minister has expressed his grief and condolensces by tweeting in his twitter handle this afernoon. After the news started appearing like wild fire in the entire electronics and print media the state Chief ministe Trivendra Singh Rawat has taken a very serious note of the anguishing sitiation that claimed 47 lives and has left for the accident spot in an official chopper to seefor himself the circumstances leading to this critical accident. The chief minister ha also announced the monetary compensation of Rs. two lakh each to the bereaved families of those dead those the amount is considered to be too meagre for the lives lost in this fatal accident. Meanwhile, orders for the detailed and indepth enquiry has also been issued in this regard. It may be recalled that the bus possessing the sitting capacity of merely 28 was badly overloaded and it seems that the driver had lost the balance. Even the chief minister TS Rawat has accepted on camera that the majority of the accidents are happening due to the over loading and his government would ensure that this trend would be averted in the near future. During the last two years there have been rapid increase in the accidents of heavy vehicles in Uttarakhand but the transport department of the state has been extremely complacent and untrust worthy towards the passengers as they never penalised any bus operator or the drivers for such fatalities. It seems as if there is literally no administration functioning in the state. In this particular case the entire state’s political and administrative appratus including the chief minister has come into action after prime minister Narendra Modi personally intervened in the matter and expressed his grief and condolences through tweet including financially helping the bereaved families. The traffic in the Char Dham Yatra Marg has tremendously increased in Uttarakhand and the speeding traffic of the outsiders not exactly knowing the geography of the routes and not well versed with hilly roads as well are also also responsible for such fatal accidents. The blind turns of hilly roads are devoid of strong iron railings and the transport department is also lacking putting indication boards and hoardings in majority of the hilly routes resulting in the tourists not able to have exact idea about various road indicators. These days Uttarakhand is the victim of severe road accident fatalities as well as the maneater attacks but little seem to have been done to provide relief to its inhabitants in both the above context