After a major road accident that killed 26 people and left 20 injured in Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur district, the Yogi Adityanath government has issued orders on the use of tractors. The state government has now restricted the use of tractors & trolleys for agriculture-related works and transportation of goods only. An order in this regard has been issued Sunday by the transport department of the state government.
Earlier on late Saturday evening, 26 people were killed and at least 20 critically injured when a tractor trolley overturned and fell into a pond on Unnao-Kanpur road.
According to one of the survivors, Sushil, the driver of the tractor was drunk and could not control the vehicle on the road adjacent to a deep pond. He said that over 60 men, women and children from Kortha village of Kanpur Rural, had gone to attend the Mundan ceremony of the son of Raju Nishad at Chandrika Devi temple in Fatehpur. Raju Nishad was driving the tractor and while returning from the temple, he had consumed country liquor at a roadside shop. He was driving the tractor in an inebriated state and could not control it. Raju Nishad survived the accident and is on the run.
Additional Director General (ADG), Kanpur Zone, Bhanu Bhaskar said that the speeding tractor could not be controlled by the driver and it overturned in the pond. Video footage from a few of the places shows the rash driving by the tractor driver.
"Immediately after the accident, local people informed the police after reaching the village and we began the rescue operation," said the ADG Meanwhile, "the in charge of Sadh Police Station, Anand Kumar Tiwari has been suspended for the delay in reaching the spot," he added.
In the recent past, three more such accidents had taken place in UP killing over a dozen people in different districts.
On Sunday, CM Adityanath visited Kanpur and met with the injured. He also visited the Kortha village of Kanpur Rural district from where the victims belonged and met with the family members of the deceased. Further, the chief minister ordered a compensation of Rs 2 lakh each for the family members of the deceased and Rs 50,000 for the injured.
Soon after returning from Kanpur, Adityanath convened a meeting of Transport Minister Dayashankar Singh, Director General of Police DS Chouhan, Principal Secretary Home Sanjay Prasad and other officials and asked them to take measures to prevent such accidents in near future and issue guidelines on the use of tractors as public transport.
After the meeting, the Transport department issued an order restricting the use of tractors as public transport and asked the cops to keep an eye on the movement of vehicles, which could cause damage to the life of people.
