The Hindu : Front Page : Punjab Minister killed in road accident

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Monday, Mar 30, 2009
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Punjab Minister killed in road accident

Photo: PTI

The wreckage of the car in which Punjab Minister and senior SAD leader Kanwaljit Singh(inset) was travelling on Sunday.

Chandigarh: Punjab Minister and senior Akali leader Kanwaljit Singh was on Sunday killed when two trucks crashed into the car in which he was travelling in Kharar near here. The 67-year-old general secretary of the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal, who was critically injured in the mishap, died at PGIMER here, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s Media Adviser Harcharan Singh Bains said.

Probe ordered

The Punjab Government has ordered an inquiry into the tragic mishap, Mr. Bains told reporters, adding that the State Government had announced a three-day State mourning. All the State Government offices would remain closed on Monday as a mark of respect to the departed Minister and the National Flag would fly at half-mast, he added.

Mr. Kanwaljit Singh, Akali MLA from Banur and Minister for Cooperation in the Badal Ministry, was returning here from Ludhiana when his private car was first hit by a truck near a T-point on Kharar on Ropar road in Khanpur village. “The impact of the first hit by the dumper-truck was so severe that the car turned in the opposite direction and collided head-on with another truck after which the car turned turtle,” Kharar city’s Station House Officer Dalbir Singh told PTI. After the accident, the Minister was first taken to civil hospital at Kharar from where he was rushed to PGIMER here in a critical condition.

The Akali leader was a three-time Minister, his first stint being as State Home Minister in the then S. S. Barnala Ministry in the 1980s.- PTI

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