As many as 41 Hindu devotees were killed and 10 injured when a tractor-trolley turned turtle on a highway and the passengers rolled into a deep ditch filled with rainwater near Nagla village in Ballia district of Uttar Pradesh on Monday.

"While a few died on the spot due to injuries, most of the victims met their end on account of drowning in the ditch", Ballia district magistrate Madhukar Dwivedi told this scribe over telephone from the accident site. The dead included 30 women and 11 men.

"Our rescue team has fished out each of the dead from the ditch, while the injured have been rushed to the Ballia District hospital, where doctors have described them as out of danger", he added.

He said, "The victims were local villagers mostly drawn from the economically weaker sections and they were on their way from Usmanpur village to a religious shrine called 'Sati Chaura', some 25 km apart; they were midway when the mishap occurred."

Preliminary investigations have suggested that the accident took place on account of overloading of the tractor-trolley.

According to an official spokesman, "The government has announced an ex-gratia compensation of Rs 100,000 to the next of kin of each of the deceased, while a sum of Rs 50,000 is  be given to the seriously injured and Rs 25,000 to those with minor wounds.

"The state will also take care of the funeral expenses , that would be carried out shortly after their post-mortem that was arranged at a special camp near the site of the mishap only", said the district magistrate.