No schoolbus turns up in grief-stricken Bali Qutabpur

Sonepat, Aug 2 (UNI) No schoolbus came today to pick students up from Bali Qutabpur a day after the village lost six of its children who drowned as the bus carrying them fell into a canal.

As the children stayed home during the forced holiday, the elders gathered in the village 'chaupal' to collectively mourn the death of the victims of the schoolbus tragedy who were consigned to flames last evening.

The shroud of silence that descended over the village is broken only by some occasional wails of grieving relatives.

The Satkumbha Varishth Vidya Mandir school to which the children belonged remained closed today to condole the deaths of its students.

School managing director Kishan Sharma, who was yesterday heckled by the agitated villagers, said that a teacher was deputed to accompany the students along with the driver Sanjay recently.

However, the teacher was unfortunately not there in the vehicle yesterday, Mr Sharma said adding that according to eye witnesses the driver lost control while averting collision with an oncoming mule cart.

The driver, who was rescued from the canal waters, is currently hospitalised and his official statement was yet to be recorded when the last reports came in.

However, a TV channel footage showed him saying that the accident was caused due to brake failure. The bridge does not have concrete safety pillars.

Meanwhile, the Chaupal gathering this morning demanded that the compensation for each victim should be Rs five lakh, said Sarpanch, Rajesh Saroha.

MORE UNI JN-MA MMS MSJ RN1822