Fifteen persons including five women and three children were killed and 11 others injured in a gruesome accident involving a Mahindra Bolero Mini Truck and a NEKRTC bus on the Waghdhari-Ripponpalli inter state highway 6 km away from Aland town near Kodalhangarga village in Gulbarga district in the early hours of Monday.
All the victims hailed from Tadwal village, 25 km from Akkalkot, in Maharashtra and were travelling in the mini truck. The victims included the driver of the mini truck. While 13 persons were killed on the spot, one died on the way to the Government General Hospital in Gulbarga and another died in the government hospital.
The condition of one of the 11 injured was stated to be very serious. The injured included the driver and the conductor of the NEKRTC Bus.
Municipal Administration and Waqf Minister Qamar ul Islam who was in the town rushed to the spot and also visited the Government Hospital at Aland, where the bodies of the 13 of the victims were kept, and consoled the family members of the victims. Rs 1 lakh each to the family of the victims from the state was announced as compensation. Besides this the NEKRTC has released a sum of Rs 15,000 to family of each of the victims as funeral expenditure and another Rs 35,000 would also be paid to each of the victims family immediately by the NEKRTC.
Mr. Islam who spoke to the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah over the accident. The Chief Minister while expressing his grief over the accident announced the compensation from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. The Minister said that he would also speak to the Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and the Minority Affairs Minister in Maharashtra and would appeal to them to announce adequate compensation to the family of the victims.
According to the relatives who were brought by the police from the Tadwal village to identify the victims, the victims numbering more than 26 were on their way to perform “Haqeeqa”(Tonsoring ceremony) of a child at the famous Khaja Banda Nawaz Darga in Gulbarga City on Monday. They had left the village at 1.30 am and the accident took place around 4.35 am.
The police said that the NEKRTC bus while trying to overtake another vehicle crashed into the mini truck killing 15 persons and injuring 11 others. The victims has been identified as Moheemin Bi Nabi Sab (50), Nabi Sab (51) Ramzan Mulla (21), Basha Mulla (60), Mohsin Mulla (14), Hussain Mulla (20), Rihana Sheikh (30), Parveen Mulla (38), Noorjahan (30), Mumtaz Lavane (40), Sameer Mulla (08), Babashaha Mulla (05), Driver of the mini truck Kamalakar (40). The two persons who died in the Government General Hospital in Gulbarga city are yet to be identified.
