MANGALORE, Aug 16: A steady drizzle on Friday morning could not keep the residents of Gurupur hobli indoors, shaken as they were by the biggest tragedy to strike these parts in recent years.
Huddled over newspapers in small groups at tea shops, street corners, junctions and bus stops they all knew the details of Thursday’s school bus tragedy that left 11 people dead. Yet, they were unable to come to terms with the enormity of the catastrophe.
The Balmia Lower Primary School that lost seven of its children to the tragedy stands on the Mangalore-Moodabidri highway. Buses and vehicles plying the road slowed down as passengers looked on in grief at the forlorn school. Just 10 kilometres away on the same highway, the students and staff of the Reymond High School and Junior College sent up a prayer of thanks for the lucky escape for nine students of their institution who were on the ill-fated bus. An Independence Day gathering became a memorial meeting for the dead. “Children, on a gathering in memory of a great day in this country’s history, let us also pray for the souls of departed,” said the announcer over the microphone. A one-minute silence was observed. Two traumatised Class 8 students fainted at the assembly.
Rescued students
A party from the school that included teachers, nuns from the parish and some students from Ulaibettu set off towards the village after the event. The party visited the families of those who had lost their lives in the accident. While the homes of the survivors had an air of thanksgiving, the homes of those who died were plunged in grief.
A heart wrenching sight...
DH News Service, Mangalore:
A day after the tragic incident broke out at Ullaibettu claiming lives of several children and others, the families of the victims grieved in pain for the irreversible loss.
The sea of emotion came when District-in-Charge Minister Krishna J Palemar reached Ullaibettu region to hand over the relief cheques to the families of the victims. “We do not want this compensation after losing our child,” said Abdul Razak Ullaibettu breaking into tears in front of Palemar.
Abu Beary on the other hand stood numb without receiving the cheque. He kept murmuring that his wife was suffering from Chikungunya for the last week and on Thursday she had left the house with the daughter to get medicine for herself. “Both left and returned dead,” he grieved.
The plight of the family which had lost both the children was so shocking that none from the family came out to take the cheques. Former minister B Nagaraj Shetty tried to console the families by saying that the damage is irreversible but it was just an attempt of the Government to provide some monetary relief to the families in distress.
Even as he was trying to console them, Shetty himself was found to be deeply touched by the plight of the families. The mother of the deceased children sat on the floor and cursed her fate. On the other hand the flood had subsided at the spot where the school van slid into the river and it was a heart wrenching sight to see the footwares, tiffins and umbrellas of the children settled on the bank of the river.
COMPENSATION
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday condoled the death of 11 people, including seven schoolchildren, in a bus tragedy near Mangalore.
The Prime Minister has also announced a compensation of Rs 1 lakh to the families of the deceased and Rs 50,000 to each of the injured, an official statement said here.
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