Pandavapura:  Pandavapura Police, who are investigating the private bus accident at Kanaganamaradi in Pandavapura taluk after it fell into Visvesvaraya Canal on Saturday resulting in the death of 30 people including women and children, have arrested the conductor of the bus and are yet to arrest the driver of the bus who is still absconding.

The conductor, who has been arrested, is Thandava. The Police picked him up from his in-law’s place on Sunday. It is learnt that he is being interrogated at an undisclosed place. However, the driver of the private bus, identified as Mahadeva of Mallanayakanakatte, is still at large.

It may be recalled that on Saturday morning, the private bus named ‘Rajkumar’ plunged into Visvesvaraya Canal at Kanaganamaradi in the taluk claiming the lives of 30 passengers. Soon after the bus fell into the canal, the conductor and the driver allegedly jumped out of the bus and swam to safety while another version said that the conductor and driver managed to come out of the bus after it fell into the canal and screamed for help which attracted large crowd, but escaped from the spot after sensing the gravity of the situation.

The private bus involved in the accident was 18-year-old and had outlived its road fitness. The bus was registered in Mangaluru (KA-19 A-5676) 18 years ago. It operated for 15 years on Mangaluru-Udupi, changing ownership eight times in this span, before it was ultimately sold to a person in Mandya.

The tragedy at Kanaganamaradi has once again brought to the fore the issue of RTOs giving Fitness Certificates to vehicles which are too old or unfit to ply on roads.

With 30 people losing their lives in Saturday’s tragedy, people are blaming the RTO officials for issuing Fitness Certificate to the ill-fated bus without bothering to check its fitness to ply on roads.

Meanwhile, the officials are collecting information about the kin of the victims to ensure that the compensation amount of Rs.5 lakh each, announced by CM Kumaraswamy, reaches the actual beneficiaries.

KSRTC operates two buses on Kanaganamaradi route

As the people of Kanaganamaradi depended only on private buses, the villagers had urged the Chief Minister to deploy KSRTC buses on this route.

Chief Minister Kumaraswamy, considering their pleas, had instructed the Transport Department to make arrangements to ply KSRTC buses on this route.

Following the CM’s instructions, the KSRTC authorities have deployed two KSRTC buses on the route from Sunday.