Rural police conducts fresh survey of dilapidated bridges; driver of bus arrested

PK Jaiswar

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, September 23

A couple of days after the tragic accident which claimed the lives of seven children after their school bus fell into a drain, the Amritsar rural police conducted a fresh survey on the dilapidated bridges in the rural belt.

The survey found that there were about 82 bridges which were without crash railings and prone to road mishaps.

Talking to The Tribune, SSP, Amritsar rural police, Harkamal Preet Singh Khakh said he had shot a letter to Deputy Commissioner Varoon Roojam urging him to direct the authorities concerned to repair these bridges and install crash railings. A copy of the letter was also submitted to the IG and the DIG (border range), respectively.

During the winter, when fog engulfs the region, these bridges become a death trap for many people. In November 2013, around 10 members of a family, including women and children, lost their lives after their vehicle fell into a canal as the bridge had no crash railing. In a similar incident, a 12-year-old boy died and around 25 students were injured, when their bus fell into a distributor canal, near Kuralian village in Ramdass, in July 2014 due to a similar reason.

Waking up to the problem, the district administration in 2013 directed officials of the Public Works Department, the Mandi Board and the Central Works Department to conduct a survey and identify such bridges falling in the district, which had no crash railings. During the survey, it was found that over 80 such bridges had no railings. The administration sent the report to the Punjab Government, seeking funds for the construction of the railings. Nevertheless, nothing happened even after three years.

Earlier too, the Amritsar rural police had conducted a similar survey. As per the list, areas falling under the Tarsikka and the Mattewal police stations have the maximum number of canal bridges (nine) without railings. Similarly, areas falling under the Gharinda and the Ajnala police station have eight and seven risky bridges, respectively. Chatiwind, Kamboh, Majitha, Beas Bhindi Saida and Jandiala Guru, too, have six similar bridges falling in its area. It had urged the Deputy Commissioner to repair these bridges.

Meanwhile, Khakh said he had divided the rural belt in two zones: One comprising Attari, Rajasansi and Ajnala while the other includes Majitha, Jandiala and Baba Bakala. Each zone would be headed by a traffic inspector. They would be provided with staff which would work as the beat system and maintain a beat register. The teams would ascertain the number of private schools and check their transportation. If any vehicle was found flouting the norms or would be more than 15 years old, they would be impounded immediately.

Meanwhile, the Amritsar rural police have arrested the driver of the school bus which had fallen into the defence drain leading to the death of seven children. He was identified as Satnam Singh. Khakh said that the police was ascertaining whether he was drunken or not at the time of the incident.