Berhampur: It was the evening of 10th October 2007. A bus carrying pilgrims fell into the swirling waters of the Alaknanda, a tributary of river Ganga in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand. The heart-wrenching road accident shocked the entire nation. Forty one pilgrims died on the spot. It was the major national as well as international news then. What was anguishing for Odisha was all of them belonged to Odisha’s Ganjam district. It was one of the deadliest road mishaps which had claimed so many lives of Odias outside the State.
The accident of such massive scale had shocked not only the state of Odisha but the nation as a whole. On the face of it, an officer went beyond the call of his duty and stood with the bereaved families, who were mentally and emotionally broken. The officer showed a great humane face and treated them like his family members to deal with the adverse situation. The officer was none other than the then Ganjam Collector VK Pandian, the now Chairman of 5T Transformational Initiatives and Nabin Odisha..
The then Ganjam Collector immediately swung into action as soon as he learned about the deadliest accident. He worked in full coordination with the State Government and the Resident Commissioner in Delhi, so that the bereaved families could able to identify the bodies of the loved ones and conduct cremation as per the rituals.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had closely monitored the situation and held discussion with the Uttarakhand Government for necessary action. He also deputed ministers and team of officials to Uttarakhand.
The Ganjam administration led by VK Pandian was alert round the clock to handle the situation. Pandian worked in wee hours directly communicating with the officials who were sent to accident site and gave them useful instructions as the situation demanded.
It was decided that the cremation of all 41 bodies would be done at Haridwar on October 12.
The then Ganjam Collector VK Pandian made all arrangements, so that the victims’ families could perform the last rites of their loved ones. He arranged flight for the families from Bhubaneswar to Delhi, and bus from Delhi to Haridwar immediately.
Accommodation and other facilities were arranged for the 41 families. The mortal remains of the victims were handed over to their family members. Finally, the last rites were performed at Haridwar. Arranging 41 cremations at one time in Haridwar under the toughest situation was really challenging. The family members of the victims had expressed their gratitude to the then Ganjam Collector for his spirit of humanity.