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Crash still haunts Gardanibagh residents

Our Correspondent in Patna

People living in the government quarters on road number 29 of Gardanibagh locality are still haunted by Monday's mishap when an Alliance Air plane crashed into their homes. The children, in particular, are yet to recover from the trauma. Some families are planning to leave the locality for good.

A couple of children have complained of hearing problems and have been referred to the doctor. Parents say that their children have stopped demanding anything after the crash and prefer to remain silent most of the time.

Laxman Singh, a resident, is a harried man. The roof of his quarter collapsed due to the vibration as the plane flew over it before crashing on his neighbour's house. He spent the entire Monday night guarding his house because anybody could have entered it through the open roof. He, subsequently, shifted his family to another place.

He has not repaired his house. There is no talk of any compensation either. He is left with no option but to shift elsewhere.

The rescue operations, to be followed by the visit of top civil aviation officials for investigation purpose, have made the lives of the residents miserable. "The police have cordoned off the area and it is really difficult for us continue living normally," said Santosh Kumar.

However, the question haunting everyone is what would have happened had the plane crashed on the state assembly or the Raj Bhawan or other important locations, all within half to one kilometre of the crash site. Former Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee chief Sarfraz Ahmed witnessed the crash as he was jogging nearby.

Initially, Rashtriya Janata Dal national spokesman Shivanand Tiwary was told that a plane had crashed on the Raj Bhawan. State Transport Minister Shankar Prasad Tekriwal told rediff.com he was relieved that his quarter was far away from the crash site.

The Patna-Delhi railway line divides the VIP quarters and Gardanibagh. Unlike the VIPs, some residents of Gardanibagh have are thinking of shifting elsewhere.

The plane crashed beside two buses on which a number of residents were preparing to leave for the holy shrine of Baba Dham in Deoghar district of Bihar. The residents consider this inauspicious. Lakhs of people visit the shrine this time of the year.

Incidentally, RJD Member of Parliament Anwar-ul Haque was the occupant of quarter number six till three years back. It was this quarter that was completely destroyed in the crash. Baidyanath Dutta, the present occupant, and another member of his family died while others suffered serious injuries.

Mohammad Anas who visited the crash site on Tuesday said, "The quarter was allotted to my uncle, Muzaffar Ahmed. I was doing my graduation then. Since Anwar-ul-Haque had then lost the election and had no place to live in Patna he used to live with us in one of the four rooms. He is our relative. It was he who got it painted green."

Anas visited the spot after reading in the newspapers that it was this quarter that got destroyed.

See full coverage of the Alliance Air crash

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