Flyover collapse: Rahul Gandhi meets injured, assures full support

Kolkata: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday met the injured people and the families of the victims of the March 31 flyover collapse incident that took place in Girish Park area here.

After meeting with the injured at the Kolkata Medical College, Gandhi described it as a great tragedy and urged the people to provide necessary support to them.

“There has been a tragedy here. I wanted to come here and give my support to the people who are injured. One must give support what we can. I came here to visit the injured people. I don’t want to make any political statement,” he said.

At least 24 people lost their lives in the mishap and hundred others got injured.

The state government had earlier announced an ex-gratia compensation of Rs. five lakh to next of kin of the victims and Rs. two lakh to gravely injured people.

The Hyderabad-based construction company IVRCL, which was constructing the flyover, said that the unfortunate incident was an accident and maintained that it was beyond anyone’s control.

Five employees of the company have been detained in Kolkata and two in Hyderabad.

The military and NDRF teams, which were rushed to carry out relief and rescue efforts, used heavy earth movers and gas cutting paraphernalia to complete the operation. The rescue operations were completed yesterday. (ANI)