M A I N   N E W S

Punjab CM visits accident site
Announces relief; 15 bodies fished out
Lalit Mohan

Ropar, July 24
The Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, today visited the accident site, where the ill-fated truck fell into the Anandpur Sahib canal yesterday and expressed sympathy with the kin of the victims. Mr Badal, who arrived at Kiratpur Sahib at about 4 p.m. also announced a grant of Rs 50,000 each to the kin of those killed in the accident. While talking to newspersons at the helipad in Anandpur Sahib he said the incident was unfortunate. The government was making all-out efforts to locate the bodies of the victims and the administration had been directed to provide all possible help to the families coming to Kiratpur to collect the bodies, he said.

Rescuers search for bodies in a truck which fell into a canal in Kiratpur Sahib in which about 50 pilgrims were feared drowned on Monday. — Reuters photo

Meanwhile, the truck was fished out of the canal at about 9 a.m. today. The bodies of three victims were found trapped in it. The sources stated that it appeared that the damaged tye rod caused the accident. The tye rods attach the steering of the truck to the wheel. It seems that the tye rod on one side had got damaged, which pulled the truck towards the canal and led to the accident.

Till reports last came in 15 bodies had been fished out. While three bodies were recovered from the truck, the rest were recovered from the Sutlej. The water of the Anandpur Sahib canal falls into the Sutlej near Kiratpur Sahib. The bodies had been carried away by the strong currents and one body was recovered just about 4 km from the Ropar headworks. Boats were also being used to locate the bodies.

The Deputy Commissioner, Ropar, Mr G.S. Grewal, said the effective search could be done only with the help of high speed boats. The request in this regard had been sent to the BBMB authorities at Nangal but they did not pay any heed to the request. So, now an SOS call had been sent to the government to provide at least six high speed boats from the adjoining districts, he added.

The victims, whose dead bodies have been recovered, have been identified as Gurjeet Kaur (15), Jaspreet Kaur (20), Jagir Kaur (55), Gurtej Kaur (45), Bhola (30), Vidhya Devi (60), Jasbir Singh (35), Dalbir Singh (13), Rajbir Singh (12), Laddi (5), Ranjit, Amrit Pal (18), Midhoo Singh (20), Jagir Singh (20) and Shiv Kumar (32).

Mr Gurbhachan Singh, MLA from Dirba, who was also present here, put the toll of the victims even higher. While talking to the correspondent he stated that as per the initial estimates there were about 80 persons in the truck. All of them belonged to the Deepa Patti area of Dirba, who had come to visit the Naina Devi temple, he said.

The district administration has, however, estimated the number of victims between 30 to 40. The administration has set up an information centre near the canal and at the Anandpur Sahib Civil Hospital. The post-mortem examination of the bodies was also conducted at the hospital and handed over to the relatives after completing the formalities.

The chances of finding the remaining bodies was bleak.

The sources added that the water in the canal could not be stopped for long as the power generation at the Ganguwal and the Nakian power projects had come to a halt due to it. The said projects were generating about 19 lakh units of electricity per day.

Tribune News Service adds from Chandigarh: Capt Amarinder Singh, President, PPCC, has expressed deep shock and grief over the truck mishap near Kiratpur Sahib on Monday. The PPCC chief called upon the social and government organisations to render all help to the injured and demanded financial assistance to the families of those killed and medical assistance to those injured in the accident.