Osmanabad tragedy: AP govt sends special team to Maha

The Andhra Pradesh government has dispatched a special team to Osmanabad in neighbouring Maharashtra where 30 passengers, all hailing from here, were killed in a road accident in the wee hours of Saturday.

The team, headed by AP Civil Supplies Minister D Sridhar Babu and Health Commissioner Praveen Prakash, has been asked to oversee relief operations, post-mortem and dispatch of bodies to Hyderabad, official sources said.

S Suresh Kumar, Collector of Medak district neighbouring Solapur in south-east Maharashtra, has also sent special teams and ambulances to shift bodies of the dead from the accident spot at Naldurg to Hyderabad.

Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy spoke over phone with his Maharashtra counterpart Prithviraj Chavan and requested him to extend all medical help to the 16 injured passengers, who were bound for temple town of Shirdi.

The AP government would bear all expenses for the treatment of the injured, he said.

Meanwhile, Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu expressed shock over the accident and extended his sympathies to the bereaved families. "It's unfortunate that such a ghastly accident occurred while people were on a pilgrimage".

YSR Congress Honorary president Y S Vijaya also expressed anguish over the accident and conveyed her sympathies to the bereaved families.