Rajasthan: Gloom in Baran villages over aspirants’ deaths

KOTA: Wails and screams pierced through the silence on Saturday morning in Baran district’s Gordhanpura, Kasampura and Hanuvatkheda villages as the news of Chaksu mishap reached. Of the six victims, three were from Gordhanpura village including the driver, while the others hailed from Kasampura, Chibabarode and Hanuvatkheda villages. Five others who were injured are also from the same region.
Not a single home in these villages lit fire in their kitchens. The villagers, including the family members, were told only about the mishap and injuries of four youths, but soon news of death of three youths and critical injury of another youth spread through social media, Gordhanpura panchayat samiti ward member Dinesh Mehta told TOI.
The four youths of the village had left for Jaipur around 11pm on Friday and reached Tonk at 3.51am on Saturday when Dilip Mehta, the van’s driver, called Dinesh Mehta and told him of his location. Deceased Dilip ran a grocery shop in the village and had a three-year-old girl. His wife is three months’ pregnant. The ward members said that the deceased’s families are very poor and hardly able to make both ends meet.
One of the critically injured, Hemraj Bairwa, was posted as panchayat sahayak (secretary) in Gordhanpura gram panchyat and was preparing for REET, Narendra Meghwal, the sarpanch said. The youths were looking forward to the REET exam and had happily left for examination centres.
SDM of Atru, Dinesh Meena, also visited Gordhanpura and other two villages to be with the grieving families. The last rites will be done on Sunday morning, the SDM said.