Book officers under criminal cases for Udhampur accident: NCP

The NCP today demanded booking of officers of Transport and Traffic departments under criminal cases for their alleged responsibility in the Udhampur bus accident in which 24 people were killed.
"State NCP demanded criminal cases to be registered against the officials of Transport and Traffic departments, responsible for allowing old model buses and not checking overloading of the vehicles," state NCP unit chief and former minister, Thakur Randhir Singh told reporters here.
He alleged they are responsible for plying of outdated buses and failing to check overloading of the passenger vehicles in rural areas of the state, particularly in this case.

Twenty four people died and 49 others were injured, five of them critically, when an overcrowded bus rolled down into a 300-feet deep gorge in Maroti belt in Udhampur district of Jammu and Kashmir yesterday.
NCP has demanded Rs ten lakh compensation to the next of kin of the deceased and Rs 5 lakh to the injured besides special treatment to the injured on government expenses.
Claiming that more people have died in road accidents than in militancy in Jammu province, he said, "Hundreds of innocent people of these hilly areas have died and many have become disabled in frequent road accidents because of bad roads and lack of latest transport facilities.

"So far, the state government has not learnt any lesson from frequent fatal buses accidents resulting in the deaths of innocent people," Singh said.

Alleging "pure negligence" on the part of state government, he demanded an inquiry by a High Court Judge to pinpoint the causes of these frequent fatal road accidents.
Singh also demanded one government job to be given to the next of the kin of the deceased.
State NCP chief also strongly condemned the killing of the two CRPF men in a militant attack near Sangam on Srinagar-Jammu National Highway yesterday.
He also demanded compensation for the farmers who have suffered losses to their crops in the recent rain.