Other States - Orissa   

Kin of Uttarakhand victims flown to Delhi

BERHAMPUR: The State Government arranged a flight to New Delhi for quick transportation of family members of over 43 dead pilgrims to Uttarakhand. The pilgrims were killed when their bus fell into Alaknanda River near Bishnuprayag on Thursday.

A group of 28 people comprising one member each from the families of the deceased left for Uttarakhand in the afternoon. State Cabinet Ministers, Manmohan Samal, Padmanabh Behera, Ganjam district Collector V.K.Pandian and Kodala MLA Niranjan Pradhan accompanied the aggrieved family members in the flight that started for New Delhi from Bhubaneswar. The team would travel to Joshimath by road. The bodies of victims are at Joshimath after autopsy. The State Government has already declared Rs. 1 lakh ex gratia payment to the aggrieved families for each of the pilgrims killed in the accident.

Chief Minister of Uttarakhand B C Khanduri had earlier announced an ex gratia of Rs 50,000 each to the family of deceased. The State Government has also declared to bear the cost of funeral of these pilgrims. As per the plans their bodies would be brought to Hardwar from Joshimath, where the identified bodies would be cremated en-mass on Saturday. Thirty-nine bodies have been already identified.

Barring two from Puri most victims were from Ganjam district. As per the data with the Ganjam district administration, 43 persons have died, two are still missing and one was injured in the accident which involved a bus that fell into Alaknanda River near Bishnuprayag on Thursday afternoon. The only surviving injured of the accident is Sasmita Satpathy. The two persons who are still missing are Apsara Gouda of Polasara and Prafulla Nayak of Chirigudi. Speaking to The Hindu, Nihar Pradhan, nephew of Prafulla said they have lost hope of of tracing his uncle as the body of his aunt; Sakuntala Nayak has already been recovered. Among the victims there are 12 from Kodala, four from Buguda, three each from Polasara and Purushottampur.

Most other small towns of the district as well as Berhampur have one or two victims in this accident. A person of the city has also died in the accident.

The whole district remained shell shocked on Friday. At places like Kodala and Polasara most of the shops and business establishments remained closed. There were some tense moments at Polasara when family members of deceased started demanding before the administrative officials that the bodies of their family members should be brought back to their village for funeral. They could be pacified. According to sources, at present 11 buses from Ganjam district are on Mahalaya pilgrimage tours of north India.

The family members of these pilgrims offered prayers at local temples for safe return of their family members. Luck could also save some pilgrims from being in the ill-fated bus. Pramoda Panda, Apana Panda, Mrudubhasini Hota and Susila Panda of ORT colony were to board the ill fated bus at Badrinath but they missed the bus and had to travel in another bus. As their luggage was in the bus that met with the accident, their names were flashed on news channels in the list of dead. But they later rang up home to confirm that a few moments delay had saved them.

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