Father torn between a funeral and hospital

AGRA: Rajveer Singh was in a dilemma — whether to attend the last rites of his daughter Mamta, 5, or rush to Agra for the treatment of his other daughter Karishma. The helpless father chose to go with the surviving daughter who was injured in the bus accident in Etah district on Thursday.

Both Mamta and Karishma left home for their school JS Vidhya Niketan, but one never returned.

“Karishma and two other injured students — Adesh, 5, and Anshika, 7, were shifted to SN Medical College in Agra. It took us two hours to bring them to the emergency ward,” informed the staff accompanying the ambulance driver.

“I am clueless after losing one daughter, while the other is struggling for life,” said Rajveer, a father of three daughters, who works as a labourer.

Sher Singh, another labourer, was also rushing to the SN Hospital where both his children Adesh and Anshika were admitted in an injured condition.

“The bus was generally overloaded and many students used to go standing in it,” lamented Singh. Most of the injured students were shifted to Saifai for treatment. Rajesh Krishna, Etah SSP said the deceased also included Avdhesh Kumar, driver of the school bus.