KARIMNAGAR: In a major road accident, five women farm workers and an auto driver were killed and nine others injured after a milk van rammed the auto they were travelling, at Malkapur bypass road near SRSP canal on the outskirts of Karimnagar on Friday.According to police, the deceased are Onna Venkata Madhava Rao (53), Myakala Devamma (55), Myakala Saileela (18), Nampalli Anjali (50), Myakala Odamma (40) and Myakala Lalitha (45). All belonged to Chamanapalli village in Karimnagar mandal. The injured were shifted to various hospitals.
Commissioner of Police V B Kamalasan Reddy visited the hospital. Families of the deceased staged a protest at Mancherial crossroads demanding suitable ex gratia from the government. MLA Gangula Kamalakar, who was in Hyderabad rushed to Karimnagar after learning about the incident and expressed deep condolences. The postmortem of the deceased was conducted at a government civil hospital and the bodies were handed over to their family members.
Later, the MLA announced `2 lakh ex gratia on behalf of the government for kin of the deceased. Besides this, milk van contractors announced Rs 1 lakh compensation and Rs 50,000 was sanctioned under Apathbandhu scheme. A case has been registered and investigation is on. .