Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Capt Amarinder Singh today announced Rs one lakh each to the kin of the victims of recent school bus tragedy here.Responding to the request of the local residents, he also announced to set up a memorial in the village for the children killed in the tragedy.Capt Amarinder visited all the five families who lost their children in the tragedy. Two families have lost two children each. He also met some of the injured students also.The Amritsar MP also announced a reward of Rs 50,000 each for the two MNREGA workers and a student who helped in saving and evacuating the children. He said, he will also recommend the name of the boy for the National Bravery Award as he had risked his own life to save other lives.The former Chief Minister sought registration of an FIR against the school principal and the transport contractor who provides buses to the school. He was told that most of the buses provided for ferrying the students were condemned already. Besides, the drivers of these buses were also not properly trained.
"The onus lies on the contractor and equally on the school principal who allowed these buses to be run", he said, while adding the local district transport officer should also be held accountable for allowing such condemned buses on the roads.Besides visiting the families of the accident victims, Capt Amarinder also visited the accident site and the bridge which was in a totally dilapidated condition and will always pose a risk to lives of people commuting and crossing over. He said, he was told that there were about 25 such bridges in the area which needed immediate repairs. He said, he will be writing to the army commander for their repairs since all these bridges fall under army's jurisdiction.Capt Amarinder asked the government that it should increase the compensation from a meagre amount of Rs one lakh to Rs ten lakhs. He said, the government has a provision to award such compensation and Chief Minister has a lot of discretionary funds which he can utilise during such tragedies.Capt Amarinder was accompanied by senior party leaders Ms Mamta Dutta, Tarsem Singh DC, Harpartap Ajnala, Gurjeet Aujla, Harjinder Thekedar, Sunil Dutti and others.