Rangia/guwahati: Two persons, including a child, were killed and 40 others injured when the bus they were travelling in overturned in Assam’s Kamrup district on Wednesday, police said.
The passengers, residents of Kamrup’s Chhaygaon, said they were returning from a National Register of Citizens (NRC) hearing in Golaghat district in eastern Assam.
“The bus hit a roadside tree on NH 17 in the wee hours of Wednesday, resulting in death of two people and injuries to 40 others,” Officer-in-Charge of Chhaygaon Police Station, Rupam Hazarika, said.
Of the injured, condition of 13 people is serious and they have been admitted to the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital, Hazarika said.
The deceased are Chhaymur Nessa and Arjuma Begum, he said. The passengers claimed they were asked to get their documents re-verified within 24 to 48 hours upon receiving the notices, at a location over 300 km away from their residences.
The incident comes three days after passengers travelling in a bus from Kamrup’s Sontoli to Golaghat district to submit their documents for re-verification met with an accident in Guwahati’s Khanapara area on August 4. The notices for re-verification of documents reached people on Saturday and Sunday, asking them to report on Monday to the NRC centres mentioned in the summon notices.
Prior to this several vehicles carrying people heading for the NRC re-verification process had met with accidents in different parts of the state, that killed a few people and injured over 50 others.
One elderly woman summoned for NRC re-verification died at Kaliabar in Assam due to heatstroke on Tuesday.
NRC authorities have started a re-verification of some of the people whose names figured in the draft NRC published in the previous year.
The authorities have started the process suddenly giving just 24 to 48 hours to people to appear for re-verification at NRC Seva Kendras located over 500 kms from their hometowns.
Several organisations in Assam including the opposition Congress have reacted strongly to the re-verification process started by the NRC authorities and demanded a clarification on the issue by the NRC state coordinator.
While the Forum against Citizenship Bill has condemned the sudden re-verification started from August 5, Assam Congress chief and Rajya Sabha MP Ripun Bora has demanded the intervention of Union Home Minister Amit Shah to stop the re-verification. The Supreme Court which had been monitoring the NRC updation process, had recently turned down a petition from the Assam government as well as from the Central government seeking sample re-verification of 20 per cent of people in districts bordering Bangladesh and 10 per cent sample re-verification for people in other districts. (Agencies)
