Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav on Thursday took major action in connection with the Guna accident which claimed 13 lives after a private bus caught fire following a collision with a dumper truck. Chief Minister Yadav announced assistance of Rs 4 lakh each to the kin of the deceased and Rs 50,000 each for the injured.
The CM removed Guna Collector Tarun Rathi with immediate effect and appointed him to the post of Additional Secretary in the Ministry. Guna District Panchayat CEO Pratham Kaushik also got an additional charge as Guna Collector. Principal Secretary of the Transport Department, Sukhveer Singh was also removed and the additional charge has been given to ACS Rajesh Rajoura of Home Department.
As per reports, the ill-fated bus did not have the permit to operate on the route nor did it possess the fitness certificate, and its owner had applied to get its registration cancelled some time ago. Taking serious note of the incident, Chief Minister Mohan Yadav announced the suspension of a transport official and the chief medical officer of Guna for alleged negligence.
The bus overturned and caught fire after colliding with a dumper on Guna-Aaron road around 9 pm on Wednesday. The death toll rose to 13 on Thursday with the recovery of a body, suspected to be that of the dumper driver, sub-divisional magistrate Dinesh Sanvle said.
More than a dozen passengers were injured, police said. The bus was on its way to Aaron while the dumper was headed for Guna. Superintendent of Police Vijay Khatri said there were around 30 passengers in the bus and four of them managed to get out of the vehicle unscathed.
