PTI

Kanpur, October 2

A day after 26 folks died in a tractor-trolley accident right here, a station home officer was suspended for alleged “dereliction of duty” whereas the tractor driver was nonetheless absconding.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath met the injured on the hospital and the bereaved households at Kortha village.

The lack of lives in street accidents is a matter of grave concern and the federal government would launch extra consciousness programmes on street security to forestall such tragedies, he mentioned and once more appealed to folks to not use tractor-trolly to ferry passengers.

District Magistrate of Kanpur Vishak G on Sunday informed PTI, “The SHO of Saadh police station has been suspended for dereliction of duty.” A senior police official mentioned that the accident spot was close to Bhadeuna village, barely a kilometre from the Saadh police station, however the SHO reached there after round one hour.

“The death toll stands at 26, while the number of injured is nine. There were 35 passengers on the ill-fated tractor-trolley. The post-mortem examination was conducted at night. The cremation is being carried out at Deori Ghat in Maharajpur,” the DM mentioned.

According to the eyewitnesses, the tractor was being pushed at a excessive velocity regardless of requests by the passengers to decelerate, Additional Director General of Police (Kanpur zone) Bhanu Bhaskar informed reporters.

“Subsequently, the driver lost control over the tractor and it overturned. The women and children came under the trolley,” he mentioned.

He mentioned that the driving force of the tractor is absconding.

“Once he is caught, other things will be probed. Five other people who were with the driver are yet to be traced,” he mentioned.

Asked whether or not the driving force was drunk, Bhaskar mentioned that they have been wanting into it.

The tractor-trolley was on its solution to Ghatampur after the passengers attended a “mundan” (tonsuring child for the primary time) ceremony on the Chandrika Devi temple in Fatehpur, the official mentioned.

Wails of grieving households stuffed the air in Kortha village, to which the victims belonged.

CM Adityanath visited the village, which is 4-5 kilometres from the accident web site, and consoled the households of the victims.

“It is tragic incident. The authorities, with a view to cease such accidents, has been operating many consciousness programmes on occasion. I had appealed yesterday that street security must be a topic of precedence for us.

“A large number of lives are lost in road accidents, and this should be an issue of concern for us,” Chief Minister Adityanath mentioned.

“Today, I had called the officials of the transport corporation, and have categorically told them that there is a need to run a comprehensive awareness programme on road safety, and there is a need to connect the schools, colleges and all the stakeholders,” he mentioned.

Primarily, tractors, trolleys and vehicles must be used for the needs they’re meant to be. If these will not be used to ferry folks, then we may curtail the lack of lives in a big quantity, he mentioned.

He additionally mentioned, “To prevent the loss of lives in road accidents, I have directed the home department, transport, PWD, all the education departments and all the agencies involved in construction to run a comprehensive programme and ascertain the shortcomings which are leading to such accidents.” Prime Minister Narendra Modi had expressed grief over the incident and introduced an ex-gratia quantity of Rs 2 lakh every for the following of kin of the deceased from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF). The injured can be given Rs 50,000.

Adityanath has despatched ministers Rakesh Sachan and Ajit Pal to the accident web site to hurry up the rescue operation.

An eyewitness informed reporters that he, together with others, rushed to the location after listening to the cries of males, ladies and youngsters for assist.

The locals instantly jumped into the water and pulled out the victims, a few of whom have been already lifeless, he mentioned.