Friday, 23 June 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN

Ten people died in the Munsyari area of Pithoragarh district on Thursday morning after a vehicle they were travelling in fell into a 500-metre deep gorge. Chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami expressed condolences on the death of people. The police circle officer of Pithoragarh Narendra Pant told The Pioneer that the police received information at about 10 AM that a vehicle carrying pilgrims from Sama village of Bageshwar district to go towards Kokila Devi temple in Hokra had fallen into a deep gorge. He said that rescue teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) along with the police carried out the search and rescue operation that reportedly took over four hours as the gorge was quite deep.

The CO said, “According to the information we have got so far, there were a total of 10 people travelling in the vehicle. Search teams recovered all bodies after hours of hard work. The bodies were sent for post mortem examination after Panchayatnama.” On the question of what was the probable cause of the accident as per the preliminary investigation of the police, he said that nothing concrete can be said about the possible cause at present. “It does not appear that brake failure was the reason. The road where the accident happened is also quite wide as it was built under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). It is possible that the driver was at fault but nothing can be said with certainty at this point. We are looking into it,” added Pant. He said that the deceased also included two army personnel- Shankar Singh (42) and Sundar (37).

Besides this, other deceased have been identified as Dharam Singh (69), Kishan Singh (64), Khushal Singh (64), Kundan Singh (58), Daan Singh (52), Shankar Singh (42), Umesh Singh (28), Nisha Singh (24), and the driver Mahesh Singh (35). The CM also expressed his condolences on the death of pilgrims and said, “I have received unfortunate news about the casualties of many people due to the accident of a vehicle coming from Shama in Bageshwar towards Nachni in Pithoragarh. I pray to God for peace to the departed souls. Om Shanti Shanti Shanti.”