Kinnaur, July 26
At 1:09 pm on Sunday afternoon, a tempo traveler vehicle hit the rocks from the hill at Batseri on the Sangla- Chitkul road and nine tourists were killed in this accident. As soon as the rocks started falling from the hill, the local people got very nervous. The Batseri bridge built on the Baspa river at a cost of crores also collapsed and went into the river after being hit by a rock.
Kinnaur MLA Jagat Singh Negi said that if the district and police administration had stopped the movement of vehicles on the said route in time, then this accident would not have happened.
Nature had given a warning. The place where the accident took place near Batseri in Kinnaur, a day earlier too, stones had fallen on the car from the hill. The tourists and the driver had fled leaving the vehicle behind. The car was shattered. But the question is that neither the district administration nor the police woke up in time. The road was restored by removing the stones. The very next day an accident happened at the same place and nine tourists lost their lives.
Now the administration has banned movement on this route. Dozens of tourists are stuck in Chitkul and Raksham due to the ban. Tribal district Kinnaur is considered very vulnerable from the point of view of natural disasters.