TWENTY-THREE people were killed and severalinjuredin separate road accidents in various districts of Uttar Pradesh on Friday, police said. In Pilibhit, six people were killedwhena carcarryingawedding party crashed into a tree, before plunging into a ditch aroundmidnight.InChitrakoot, six people were killed when a sports utility vehicle (SUV) collided head-on with a truck. In Kannauj, eight passengers lost theirliveswhenaprivatebus hit a water tanker on the AgraLucknow Expressway.

 

In Lucknow, three men were killedwhen theirmotorcyclewas hit by an unidentified vehicle in the Mall police station area. PM Modi condoled the loss of livesin theKannaujincident and announced an ex-gratia relief of Rs 2 lakh each from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF) for the families of the deceased and Rs 50,000 each for the injured. “Saddened by the loss of lives in the bus accident in Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh. May the injured recover soon. The local administrationis assisting those affected. An ex-gratia of Rs 2lakh from PMNRF will be given to the next of kin of each deceased, and the injured will receive Rs 50,000,” Modi said in a post on X. In the Pilibhit incident,acar with11peopleonboardrammed intoatreebeforefallingintoaditch on the Pilibhit-Tanakpur road in theNeorapolicestationarea.

 

The driver lost control over the car while trying to overtake another vehicle.SuperintendentofPolice (SP) Avinash Kumar Pandey told PTI Videos that the rescue operationlastedformorethananhour and a half, with a bulldozer used to clearafallen tree that had trapped the vehicle. The victims, all from Uttarakhand’s Khatima district, were returning from a wedding in Chandoi village when the tragedystruck.

 

Thedeceasedhave been identified as Munni (65), ManzoorAhmed (60),Bahiuddin (55), Sharif Ahmed (60), Sahe Alam (35) and Rakim (11). Three of the injured were referred to a superiormedical facility,whilethe others received initial treatment at a local hospital. In Chitrakoot, six people died and five were injured when their SUV collided head-on with a truck on the Jhansi-Mirzapur highway in the Raipura police station area at around 5:30 am. SP Arun Kumar Singh said the 11 family members from Chhatarpur in Madhya Pradesh were returning home after immersing ashes in the Ganga in Prayagraj. The survivors were treatedatalocalhospitalandsubsequently,referred to thedistrict hospital for further care. The deceased were identified as Nanhe, Hariram,Mohan,Ramu, Mangana and Ramswaroop Yadav (age unconfirmed). In Kannauj, the accident occurred around 2 pm on the AgraLucknowExpresswaywhenaprivate sleeper bus, travelling from Lucknow to Delhi, collided with a water tanker that was irrigating plants on the highway.