NHRC directs Har govt to pay Rs 3 lakh to kin of two youth

The National Human Rights Commission today asked Haryana Government to pay Rs three lakh as monetary relief to the next of kin of two youth who were killed in a road accident last year.
"The commission has recommended to the government of Haryana, through its Chief Secretary to pay Rs three lakh as monetary relief to the next of kin of deceased, Arvind (21) and Gaurav (20), who died when their motorcycle fell down from a broken bridge into a drain on March 16 last year," the NHRC said a statement here today.
Both the youth were students of Engineering College at Aurangabad in Haryana's Palwal district.

The direction of NHRC came after it did not receive any reply to the final reminder on its show cause notice as to why Rs three lakh as monetary relief should not be paid to the next of kin of the two deceased, who became victims of carelessness of the state authorities.
In response to the Commission's notice, Haryana Police had said the department has no provision to pay monetary relief of Rs three lakh to the next of kin of the deceased.
The PWD, in its reply, had said the case was related to construction of a new culvert in Palwal district by Irrigation Department and the Engineer-in-Chief of the Department had already been requested to prepare a reply to the notice.

The Commission thus observed that accident had occurred due to the negligence of the state authorities who did not repair the broken bridge.
It also observed that subsequent to its notices, police had taken action only against the contractor, who was arrested under Section 279/304A, IPC and not against the concerned Engineer, who was also responsible for the same and hence, the state had to bear the liability.