Miracle boy lives as dad, grandparents die

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Two weeks after their second anniversary, 28-year-old G. Mohan Rao, and wife Deepika Seethaiah, 26, residents of Nizampet, were to travel to Shirdi with their nine-month-old son for the child’s “mundan.” The couple’s parents and Deepika’s sister were also accompanying them, and Mohan, a software engineer, accordingly booked tickets on Madurai-Manmad Express.

But since the tickets were not confirmed, he cancelled them and reserved seats on a Sree Kaleshwari Travels bus two days ago, his brother-in-law N. Ravikant, said on Saturday. It was the ill-fated bus. Miraculously, nine-month-old Jaivardhan survived the mishap that left his father and grandparents dead. Family members said Jaivardhan was sitting on his mother’s lap, which probably saved him.

Besides Mohan Rao, his father G. Venkateshwar Rao, mother G. Adamma, father-in-law M. Kristaiha and mother-in-law M. Savitri died on the spot. The child, his mother Deepika and 22-year-old aunt Radhika Seethaiah are recuperating at Solapur Civil Hospital. According to Mr Ravikant, Mohan and Deepika had decided to have Jaivant’s hair shaved off at Shirdi soon after he was born as a tribute to Sai Baba. Mohan’s parents and in-laws also decided to join them on the pilgrimage and arrived in Hyderabad two days ago, on their wedding anniversary, where Deepika’s sister Radhika also joined them.

Travel agency flouted norms, says Botsa
The fatal accident near Naldurg in Maharashtra in the early hours of Saturday was the result of sheer negligence by the travel agency, which flouted norms and took more passengers than its mandated capacity, transport minister Botsa Satyanarayana said.

The aspect of negligence by the agency, Sree Kaleshwari Travels, came out in a detailed review of the accident, preceded by a high-level emergency meeting called by Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy and also following food and civil supplies minister D. Sreedhar Babu and commissioner of health Praveen Prakash’s visit to the accident spot. “Sree Kaleshwari Travels was flouting norms. The agency did not maintain complete information on passengers, which is mandatory,” Mr Satyanara-yana said.

“Besides, the bus was carrying 46 passengers, against its capacity of 42.” “We had earlier tried to curb speed limit of buses to 60 kilometres per hour but the move was vehemently opposed by unions and travel agents,” he said. Earlier in the day, the Chief Minister pulled up transport department officials for not getting details of passengers on the bus.