Prayer on lips, their gaze is fixed on TV screen for 5 days. BHOPAL: Residents of Ninora, a dusty village near Ujjain, have been doing two things for the past five days. Praying and watching TV. They are praying for safety of a busload of pilgrims from their area, who remain untraced ever since the tragedy struck Kedarnath and watch TV to get a clue about their whereabouts. Unable to get any information about more than 300 people from a dozen villages near Ujjain gone missing, villagers and family persons have now started approaching the police to seek help. A resident of Lakherwadi, Arun Bhonsle has filed a complaint of gumshudgi (missing person) at Kharakua police station. In a written complaint, Arun told police that besides his elder brother Deepak, his wife and three children, a large number of other villagers have been missing. "We have no clue about their whereabouts." The Bhonsles and other villagers had left for Char Dham yatra on June 3, but all of them are missing from June 16. People of Ninora have lodged a similar complaint with Neelganga police station and another by a corporator of Ujjain, Yogita Rathore, at Dewas gate police station. U K Tiwari, station house officer of Kharakua police station said, "We have received application of villagers. We have also approached nodal officer of Bhopal control room and other officials with names of missing person. We will register a report if they continue to remain untraced." Meanwhile, a pall of gloom descended on Hasampura village near Ujjain, where last rites of Inder Singh Solanki and his wife Lila Bai Solanki were performed. On Chardham yatra, the couple was washed away in the flood near Rambada Gouri Kund. President of the Malwa unit of Bhartiya Kisan Sangh, Solanki and his wife were part of a 54-member group that went to the yatra on June 3. Family persons lit the "funeral pyre" of cow dung cakes and performed the rituals in the presence of the villagers. Bharat Singh Bais, spokesperson of the local unit of Sangh said, "Helpless relatives of Solanki and other villagers saw the couple flowing down in the flood water around 7.30 am on June 17." About 200 km away from Ujjain, Babulal Prajapati, a labourer from Neemuch, had witnessed similar tragedy. "My uncle Banshilal and his wife Kamla Bai had drowned in the flood water near Gauri Kund." He said he knew the place where their bodies were stuck, but the people present on the spot demanded Rs 5,000 to retrieve them.TOI
Posted on: Sun, 23 Jun 2013 05:43:16 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015