9 dead in bus accident in Kerala
Palakkad (Ker) (PTI): Nine people, including five students, were killed after a private tourist bus hit a state-run KSRTC bus from behind at Vadakkenchery here, Kerala Road Transport Minister Antony Raju said on Thursday.
The minister said the accident occurred around 11.30 PM on Wednesday when the private bus, which was travelling at a high speed, while attempting to overtake a car, hit the rear end of a Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) bus.
"Both the buses went off the road as a result. Nine persons, including five students and a teacher, were killed in the accident," he told the media.
The minister also said that the preliminary view was that the accident occurred due to the high speed of the private bus and the negligence of its driver.
He said the KSRTC bus was going from Kottarakkara in Kerala to Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu and had 81 passengers, of whom three died in the accident.
The private bus was carrying 42 students and 5 teachers of Baselios Vidyanikethan Senior Secondary School in Ernakulam, who were on a pleasure trip.
State Local Self Government Minister M B Rajesh, who visited the hospital in Palakkad where the injured were admitted, told reporters that four of them were in serious condition, but the rest were fine.
Meanwhile, state Revenue Minister K Rajan told the media that everyone was in shock regarding what happened.
He said there will be an investigation to ascertain how and why the accident happened and strict measures would be needed to be put in place for preventing such incidents in the future.
Rajan said a cabinet meeting will be held to consider providing compensation to the families who lost loved ones in the accident and that counselling may have to be provided to the students who lost close friends and a teacher in the tragic incident.
One of the students told a TV channel that the private bus was going at a very high speed and then rammed into the rear right side of the KSRTC bus and then toppled over.
"There was blood everywhere. We do not know what has happened to some of our friends and teachers who were in bad shape," he said, breaking into tears.
Another student said that she was watching a film when the accident occurred and someone landed on top of her as the bus toppled over.
"Someone pulled me and another girl out from the bus. But the girl sitting close to me could not be pulled out until much later," she said.
Around 40 persons were injured in the accident, police said.
Tragic Road accident in Kerala as tourist bus carrying students collided with Government bus near Walayar - Vadakancheri region. 9 dead. pic.twitter.com/GQMB1AyVjb
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Let's debate in LS to close chapter on 'complaints, insults' against Nehru: Priyanka to PM
New Delhi (PTI): Hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for raking up Jawaharlal Nehru's "mistakes", Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Monday called for a debate in the Lok Sabha on the "insults" and "complaints" against the country's first prime minister to "close the chapter" on it once and for all.
"And after that, let us discuss today's issues like unemployment, inflation, women's issues....," she said, participating in a discussion in the Lok Sabha on 150 years of national song Vande Mataram.
The Congress general secretary also said though Modi gives good speeches, he has a shortcoming -- he is weak on facts.
Launching a strong defence of Nehru, who was repeatedly criticised by treasury-bench members during the debate, Priyanka Gandhi said Modi has been the prime minister for about 12 years now and Nehru had spent about those many years in jail for the country's independence.
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"Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru lived for this country and breathed his last while serving the nation. Our prime minister has been in this House for about 12 years, I have only been here for 12 months, yet I have a small piece of advice. There was an election recently and he released a list of how many insults the opposition parties and their leaders had hurled at him, and in that list, he had compiled perhaps 90-99 such insults," Priyanka Gandhi said.
"So I want to give him a small piece of advice: whatever complaints you have against Nehruji, whatever mistakes you think he made, whatever abuses you want to hurl, whatever insults you want to inflict, make a list of all of those ... 999 insults, 9,999 insults, make a list, and then we will fix a time. Just like we debated Vande Mataram for 10 hours today, we will ask the speaker, we will fix a time -- 10 hours, 20 hours, 40 hours, however many hours it takes for your complaints to be fully addressed -- so that you are satisfied," she said.
Priyanka Gandhi asserted that people have sent them to Parliament to discuss and solve their problems.
"As they say in English, once and for all, let us close the chapter. Let us close it. The country will hear what the complaints are -- what did Indiraji do, what did Rajivji do, what is parivarvaad (dynastic politics), what mistakes did Nehruji make. Listen to this and then it is over. After that, unemployment, inflation, women's issues -- discuss those," she said.
The Congress leader alleged that the debate on Vande Mataram is being held merely to distract attention because "this government wants to hide the reality of the current situation in this country".
"How troubled and distressed the youth of this country are today.... Paper leaks keep happening, there is unemployment, inflation has gone up so much -- why are we not discussing these in the House?" she questioned.
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"Why are we not discussing the manipulation that is happening with reservations? There will be talk about women, big announcements will be made, but why are no concrete steps being taken here to improve their situation?" she asked.
"If you have the courage, talk about why there is unemployment, why exam papers are leaked," Priyanka Gandhi said.
