63 dead in a bus fire in UP

[The Outsider]

Yes...we talk about terrorism, Islam, Kashmir, Pakistan sometimes even the North East, and Naxalites........what about these kind of incidents which happen ever so frequently in our country. Who will be questioned about why it happened? Will we raise protests demanding better safety standards in public transportation and all walks of public life? Will the minister of transportation be questioned about when the last safety inspection was done on the vehicle? Fact is there is no value of human life in India.....this incident will be lucky to make the front page of newspapers for more than a day and as for the questions raised above we can forget about them. For things to change we have to start valuing human life, where valid questions must be asked even if one person dies and how to prevent it in the future. The general Indian populace is living like insects and a few dead, more injured, and even more displaced is but a minor inconvenience. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by the Narmada dam project without compensation but when Arundhati Roy and Aamir Khan talk about it they are quickly branded pseudo secular and their points ignored, even if they are making good ones. Mamta Banerjee, for all her other faults, is hammered upon because she takes up the cause of people left homeless and landless in order to make way for an auto manufacturing company. These people have their faults but not all causes they raise their concerns on are worthless. We just find them worthless because the people who run the media and the middle class that we interact with on a day to day basis have become callous - completely unmoved by people dying in avoidable accidents with no fruitful inquiries, unmoved by people being rendered homeless by the government supposed to protect them. We need to do one thing as a nation before launching an attack on Pakistan - start valuing human life if we want to make a lasting, substantial, and concrete change. RIP.

Agra (IANS): The toll in Tuesday's bus accident in Firozabad district of Uttar Pradesh has risen to 63 with the recovery of more bodies of those who were burnt to death when the vehicle went up in flames, police said on Wednesday. The accident occurred at around 5 p.m. Tuesday in Shikohabad area of Firozabad, about 50 km from here. The bus was going from Mathura to Sultanpur. The passengers were apparently returning after a pilgrimage and all hailed from Sultanpur. "The death of 63 people, including women and children, has been confirmed," Firozabad District Magistrate Amit Gupta told IANS on phone. Till late Tuesday, 40 bodies had been recovered from the bus. "According to initial information, witnesses said that the bus caught fire while it was running and overturned. Thirty-three passengers managed to escape and have received minor injuries," city police chief Navneet Kumar said. Most of the bodies recovered from the debris were turned to ashes and it was difficult for the rescue team and cops to identify them. "A large number of skeletal remains were found stuck to the seats of the bus and we have gathered almost all of them. The remains have been sent to the government hospital for post-mortem," a police official said, requesting anonymity. The bus driver escaped unhurt and has been held. "The driver is being questioned about the cause of the accident. Witnesses noticed huge sparks from the rear side of the bus before it caught fire," the police official said. "The axle of the bus broke down, causing the sparks that reached the diesel tank due to which it caught fire after the bus went without stopping for about two kilometres," he added. Uttar Pradesh Transport Minister Ram Achal Rajbhar Tuesday evening announced a compensation of Rs.100,000 to the families of each of those killed in the accident and Rs.50,000 for the injured.

[Guest dada_rocks]

Agree.. I never understood why we can spend thousands of crores on haj subsidy but can't put a decent crowd control machinery in place in temples in our own land.. few months back a stampede took lives of more than 200.. But comparing these things to terror is kind of misplaced.. this is our incomeptence but terror is deliberate killing of people...........

[Sachinism]

The people need to stand up and make their voices heard about this, or like most other things in India it'll be swept under the rug and forgotten about in a week