Victims’ kin to sue Botcha, JC Prabhakar

Narayana to meet Chief Minister today

Expressing solidarity with the victims, Communist Party of India (CPI) State secretary K Narayana said he would meet Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Thursday and demand an ex gratia of Rs 25 lakh and a job for the kin of each victim.

Hyderabad: The JAC of Palem bus fire accident victims’ families on Wednesday decided to file a case against Transport Minister Botcha Satyanarayana, JC Prabhakar Reddy of Diwakar Travels and RTI officials in the Mahabubnagar Court, holding them responsible for the accident. Speaking to media persons, JAC president D Sudhakar said that because of their campaign, around 1,500 buses were seized and several motor vehicle inspectors were caught with black money in their possession.

People must know who were behind the scam of hundreds of crores, he added. He appealed to the general public to avail the services of APSRTC as they were safer and run by well trained personnel.

Naveena, wife of one of the victims, said the government was not ready to take the responsibility for the accident, though the owner of the bus himself declared that the bus belonged to the State. “When both the Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh governments are playing the blame game, whom should the families of the victims approach for justice? The Chief Minister should resign if he cannot ensure justice to us. The government should take over the private bus services in the State,” she said.

Nazneen Khanam, who lost her husband and brother-in-law in the accident, demanded the government to take action against those who were responsible. Demanding enforcement of safety measures, she hoped that no one should lose life in a similar way and added that it was the responsibility of both the governments to come to the rescue of the victims’ families and take measures to see that such things did not happen again.