BHOPAL: Three migrant labourers of Bundelkhand were killed and eight others injured after an overcrowded bus overturned on a highway near Gwalior on Tuesday morning. The bus was on its way to Tikangarh-Chattarpur from Delhi.
“While the driver was negotiating a turn, the bus packed with around 100 passengers overturned at the Jourasi Ghat on Gwalior-Jhansi highway around 9 am. Three labourers were killed and 12 others injured in the accident,” said Gwalior district Superintendent of Police Amit Sanghi.
The injured persons were admitted to a government hospital in Gwalior, while the other passengers were being sent to their destinations by other buses, he said.
Ganpatlal, a passenger of the ill-fated bus, claimed that nearly 100 people were travelling in the vehicle and a number of them were sitting on its roof.
He said the bus conductor charged Rs 700 per passenger for ferrying them from Delhi to Tikamgarh.
He also claimed that the entire bus staff, including the driver, consumed liquor after having dinner at Dholpur (Rajasthan) on Monday night.
"The bus had hit a truck in Dholpur. Later, after it reached near Gwalior, the driver lost control over the wheels and the vehicle overturned," he said.
Hundreds of people from Bundelkhand work as labourers in New Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and other northern states.
State additional commissioner, transport, Arvind Saxena and other senior officials rushed to the spot after getting information about the accident.
“We have contacted officials in Delhi and other states and asked them to inform in advance about migrant labourers going back to their states so that they can be sent to their respective places safely,” Saxena said.
Asked if the bus was overloaded, the official said they were conducting a probe into it by taking the statements of the passengers.
To a query on overloaded buses plying unchecked in the state, Saxena said since February this year, nearly 24,000 buses were checked and action was taken against 3,000 of them.
Besides, the permits of 2,500 buses were also cancelled, he added.