Road accident victim’s kin block highway

Satinder Pal Singh

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Lalru, July 8

Tension gripped the area as family members of a four-year-old Kushpreet Kaur, who was crushed under the wheels of a truck near the Lelhi intersection on Sunday, blocked the Ambala-Chandigarh highway at Lelhi along with 100 villagers for over an hour bringing the traffic to halt on Monday.

Commuters travelling on the Ambala-Chandigarh stretch were forced to wait in the scorching heat for over an hour as residents of Hasanpur village staged a protest demanding adequate compensation for the family members of the deceased and shifting of the traffic booth and removal of barricades at Lelhi to prevent regular accidents.

The blocking of the National Highway (NH) disrupted movement of vehicles and inconveniencing commuters travelling towards Ambala and Chandigarh. The police faced a tough time while convincing the protesters to lift dharna from the spot.

The ‘unprofessional’ attitude of the traffic cops while dealing with the general public at the Lelhi check post created resentment among local villagers.

Rani, a resident of Hasanpur village, and others alleged that the accident, which claimed two lives including that of a local girl Khushpreet Kaur on Sunday, happened due to barricades installed by traffic cops to stop vehicles for checking documents.

The locals further alleged that the traffic cops stopped vehicles coming from the Ambala side, which slowed down movement of other vehicles, resulting in traffic snarls near the Lelhi check post.

The driver of the truck in order to avoid traffic on the highway steered the vehicle on the ‘kuchha’ (broken) road and hit two motorbikes from the rear end resulting in death of Khuspreet Kaur (4) of Hasanpur village and Rajni Chauhan (45) of Dera Bassi.

Protesters alleged that tempo and other commercial vehicles were stopped by traffic policemen to take bribe and wrongly challan vehicles of other states in order to meet their targets.

However, while denying the allegations traffic officials said several lives had been lost at the Lelhi intersection point in the past as it was an accident prone area.

“We have demanded removal of the check post and barricades as the traffic personnel are unable to prevent such accidents,” they added.

The Lelhi police managed to pacify protesters and victim’s family members, who lifted the blockade on the NH after an hour.

Officials at the Lelhi police post said the matter was later amicably resolved after villagers were assured that the traffic check post would be shifted to some other place.

While refuting allegations of accepting bribe traffic officials said they had strict orders from their higher-ups not to let violators go scot-free.

The Lelhi police post in-charge, Narpinder Pal Singh, said the police had already registered an FIR against truck driver Gian Singh, who was arrested later. The police had also impounded truck, he added.