Road mishap claims two lives

From our Correspondent

Bongaigaon, January 12: A road accident resulted in the death of two persons which led to a tussle between the police, administration and the public.

The three-hour heated situation in Dolaigaon area of Bongaigaon town near PWD office under North Bongaigaon Police point ended filly with the intervention of the administration which assured the public to fulfil their demand immediately.

The two victims are Bhupendra th Talukdar (62), a retired staff of PWD, origilly from Sarhebari area and a resident of Dolaigaon area of Bongaigaon, and Rajen Das (57), an employee of PWD origilly from Pathsala area of Barpeta district and resident of the nearby PWD colony. “They both were coming home from the market in a bicycle. Just in front of the first gate to PWD colony, a truck (AS18 A 4570) which was moving back, hit both of them. Both died on the spot. The conductor, who was driving the truck at that moment, escaped from the spot,” an eye witness said.

The accident spot is just few metres away from the FCI godown which is located in the backside of the PWD colony. The truck was waiting there for loading goods from the godown.

The local people immediately gathered on the spot. Police took the truck under police custody. When police tried to take the bodies to the hospital for postmortem, the gathered people stopped them from doing so. The mob claimed that having a FCI godown in a populated area was dangerous which led to accidents like today, and should be shifted to another place. The people demanded that movement of trucks should be restricted in that road also.

The district administration filly assured people to solve the matter by discussion with public representatives. Administration also ordered restriction of  movement of heavy vehicles, especially trucks on the road until a solution was arrived at. The situation was controlled and people permitted police to take away the bodies.