Commuters bear the brunt

Vijay Pratap Singh
Posted online: Saturday , August 09, 2008 at 03:00:20

Allahabad, August 8 The August 9 BSP rally brought woes for millions of commuters in the state on Friday, as over 2,000 buses of the Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) stayed off the roads.

The state party leaders had booked these buses to reach the venue of the national conference of the BSP at the Ramabai Ambedkar ground in Lucknow. Thousands of passengers remained stranded at bus stations across the state.

There are 17 regions of UPSRTC and each region has earmarked up to 200 buses for ferrying the BSP members to Lucknow. “Over 2,000 buses would remain off the road for two days,” said Chandra Shekhar Pandey, state President of Roadways Karmachari Sanyukt Parishad

The UPSRTC buses carry over 4 crore passengers daily, said a department official. The Allahabad, Varanasi, Faizabad, Gorakhpur, Kanpur, Azamgarh, Hardoi, Aligarh and Jhansi regions of the UPSRTC have reportedly kept aside over 1,200 buses for the rally.

While the BSP leaders have booked only 145 UPSRTC buses from the Allahabad region, the department had reportedly sent 200 buses for the rally. Regional manager of UPSRTC, SK Banerjee said the party paid Rs 16 lakh in advance for the buses in Allahabad.

Regarding the inconvenience caused to the passengers, he said the department had increased the frequency of the remaining 230 buses in the region. The actual situation, however, belied his claim, as thousands of passengers remained stranded at several bus stations in the region.

BSP sources said each MLA was asked to manage 15 buses for the party workers. A leader’s ranking in the party would depend on his ability to manage vehicles and workers.

The BSP candidate for the Allahabad Lok Sabha constituency Ashok Kumar Bajpai booked 90 buses of UPSRTC and 110 private buses. “We paid money for the buses and did not misuse the state machinery,” said Kumar.

11 school kids drown in swollen Silni in Azamgarh

2 Aug 2008, 0415 hrs IST

LUCKNOW/VARANASI: Eleven children drowned when the boat carrying around 21 school students capsized in Azamgarh on Friday.

Azamgarh district authorities handed out cheques of Rs 1 lakh each to the kin of deceased, whose bodies were fished out of river.

District Magistrate (DM), Azamgarh, Mayur Maheshwari said that the incident took place near Gyaspur village in Sandhara police circle. A boat ferrying 27 persons, including 21 school children, across Silni, capsized in the afternoon.

"While six managed to swim to safety, another 10 were fished out in an unconscious state by the rescue teams and admitted to the district hospital," Maheshwari said adding that 11 bodies of students had been recovered from the river when the rescue operation was called off due to bad light on Friday.

Most of the victims were students of class 4, 5 and 6 at Durga Inter College in Kandhrapur area and were returning home when the incident took place. Though the school had an approach road, students preferred to ferry across the river as it was a short-cut, Maheshwari said.

According to local villagers, the boat was overloaded and ferrying it across the swift current of the swelling river was a dangerous preposition. In utter disregard to safety, the boatman took 27 passengers in the boat that had a sitting capacity of 15.

"The rescued students are completely out of danger but we have kept them under observation as they are in a state of shock," SSP, Azamgarh, Vijay Garg said.