Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 20: Twenty Shri Mata Vaishnodevi pilgrims were injured, eight of them critically when a bus carrying them skidded off the road and turned turtle at Moori, 10 kilometer short of Katra town this afternoon.
The ill-fated bus bearing registration number JK02X-9947 was on its way from Jammu to holy town when it met with accident at Moori due to the negligence of driver, who along with conductor fled from the spot soon after the accident. According to the injured pilgrims, the vehicle was being driven rashly and negligently despite their objections.
On getting information about the accident, police and medical teams rushed to the spot and started rescue operation. Even Shri Mata Vaishnodevi Shrine Board pressed into service its ambulances to shift the injured to the Community Health Centre (CHC) from the accident spot.
Later, eight critically injured persons were shifted to Government Medical College and Hospital for specialized treatment. Their condition was stated to be out of danger when reports last came in.
SP Katra, Mohan Lal, who personally supervised the rescue operation, said that efforts were on to nab the absconding driver and conductor of the ill-fated vehicle.
The injured admitted in the CHC Katra have been identified as Vanketesh Kalati, son of Soropa Kalati, Nisha Singh, wife of Anil, Vijay, son of Kailash, Devi Dass, all the residents of Pune, Amit Verma, son of Shambu Nath wife of Bihar, his wife Sapna Verma, Dheeraj Kumar, son of Nawal Kishore of Bhagalpur Bihar, Omesh Dubey, son of Ram Suraj Dubey of Lucknow, Aditya Verma, son of Jagdish Verma of Lucknow, Kavita Verma, son of Jagdish Verma of Lucknow, Rahul Kumar Shah, son of N K Shah of Bhagalpur and Anil Kumar Verma, son of S N Verma of Bihar.
Those admitted in GMC have been identified as Jagdish Verma, son of Bheja Lal Verma of Lucknow, Sharda, wife of Raju Ram Verma of Lucknow, Kamaljeet Kapoor, wife of Sunny Kapoor of Delhi, Deepak Yadav, son of Ashok Yadav of Pune, Noor Mohd, son of Abhu Khan of Pune, Tanu Chowan, son of Gopal Chowan of MP, Anusha, wife of Naveen Kumar of Patna, Mahesh Lather, son of Ram Krishan Lather of Chandigarh.
Meanwhile, Governor N N Vohra, who is also the Chairman of the Shri Mata Vaishnodevi Shrine Board, expressed serious concern over the accident.
After discussions with the Chief Executive Officer, Navin K Choudhary, Governor directed Dr Mandeep K Bhandari, Additional Chief Executive Officer of the Shrine Board to provide all required help and support to those injured in the accident.
The Additional CEO directed the General Manager, Vaishnavi Dham, Jammu, to rush to the Government Medical College to ascertain the help and support required by the injured persons and provide the same without any delay.
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