33 Dead As Bus Carrying University Employees Skids Off Mumbai-Goa Highway
RAIGAD, July 28: 33 employees of an agricultural university in Maharashtra were killed when a bus they were travelling in skidded off a mountain stretch on the Mumbai-Goa highway this morning. The police said 11 bodies have been recovered from the accident site in Maharashtra's Raigad district.
A total of 34 people were on the bus, the police said. The vehicle fell 500 feet down the mountain, news agency IANS reported.
State minister Vinod Tawde tweeted he has asked officials to go to the accident site and start rescue operations immediately.
The stretch of the highway in the Western Ghats where the accident happened had been receiving heavy rain for the past few days.
Raigad police officer PD Patil said the employees of Dr Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth were going somewhere for a weekend picnic.
The only survivor of the crash managed to climb up the road and alert the police, after which rescuers reached the area. A team of the National Disaster Response Force from Pune is involved in search and rescue operations.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi tweeted he has asked party workers in the area to provide "all possible assistance to the injured and families of those who have died". President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi also tweeted they are pained by the loss of lives in the bus accident.
Courtesy: www.ndtv.com
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We need to create system in which people's skills get their due: Rahul Gandhi
New Delhi (PTI): Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi Friday called for creating a system in which people's skills get their due and everyone's contribution is respected, as he shared a Diwali video in which he interacts with paint job workers and potters.
Posting the over nine-minute video which features him also having a conversation with his nephew Raihan Rajiv Vadra on YouTube, the former Congress chief said, "A memorable Diwali with special people - I celebrated this Diwali working with some painter brothers and making earthen diyas with a potter family."
"I saw their work closely, tried to learn their skills and understood their difficulties and problems. They don't go home. We celebrate festivals happily and to earn some money, they forget their village, city, family," Gandhi said.
"They make happiness from clay. While lighting up the festivals of others, are they able to live in light themselves? Those who build houses can hardly run their own houses!" he said.
Gandhi said Diwali means light that can remove the darkness of poverty and helplessness.
"We have to create such a system -- in which people's skills get their due and contribution is respected -- makes everyone's Diwali a happy one. I hope this Diwali brings prosperity, progress and love in the lives of all of you," he said.
In the video, Gandhi is seen working with labourers at the 10 Janpath residence and learning to paint walls along with his nephew. In the second part of the video, Gandhi goes to the house of a woman who makes earthen lamps with her five daughters.
Gandhi tries his hand at pottery and makes 'diyas', which he says he would give to his mother and sister.
Since his Kanyakumari to Kashmir Bharat Jodo Yatra and his Manipur to Mumbai Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, Gandhi has been interacting with a cross-section of people from mechanics and cobblers to labourers and bus drivers.
He often posts videos of his numerous interactions and highlights the plight of various sections of society.
