Dehradun, 22 May:
Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna has expressed his grief over the deaths of 9 pilgrims in road accident. In his condolence message, he has prayed for the peace of the departed souls and strength for the bereaved family members. He has also wished speedy recovery for injured persons. Chief Minister Bahuguna also announced ex-gratia of Rs. 1 lakh each for the families of deceased persons and Rs. 50,000 each for the seriously injured persons. He has directed to speed up the search and rescue operation.
According to the State Emergency Monitoring Centre, 6 persons died on the spot and 3 more succumbed to their injuries on the way to hospital, while, 21 others were injured when the bus they were traveling in fell into River Ganga at Kodiyala near Byasi in Tehri District on Tuesday. The accident occurred at 12.55 pm when bus carrying 45 passengers including 20 women, 21 men and 4 bus staff was heading towards Badrinath from Rishikesh. The injured had been rushed to Rishikesh Government Hospital by 108 Emergency Ambulances. The Administrative officers and senior police officers reached the accident spot.
District Magistrate Ravinath Raman has dispatched team of three doctors from Rishikesh to the accident spot so that immediate medical treatment could be rendered to the injured. He has issued instruction to conduct postmortem of the bodies in Rishikesh. DM has directed SDM Rishikesh to personally monitor the arrangements.
