One killed, many injured as bus carrying Tripura bank job aspirants overturns in Assam

SILCHAR — At least one person was killed and many others injured, all candidates of a recruitment exam of a Tripura bank, when their bus carrying the job aspirants overturned in Assam’s Dima Hasao district, officials said on Thursday.

The officials said that six of the injured were very critical and admitted to Silchar Medical College and Hospital while others were shifted to various other hospitals.

According to reports, the accident occurred in the wee hours of Thursday due to heavy rain, causing the bus to overturn and collide with a road divider, ultimately plunging into a drain.

According to officials, the bus from Agartala carrying around 40 candidates for the recruitment exam of Tripura State Cooperative Bank (TSCB) going to Guwahati overturned at Ditokcherra in mountainous Dima Hasao district killing one of the candidates Deepraj Debbarma (27) on the spot and injuring others.

The candidates from Tripura are going to Guwahati to appear for exams of TSCB’s different posts in different centers to be held for three days from Friday.

To conduct the recruitment examination and to select candidates, the TSCB authority outsourced the exam centres in Silchar, Guwahati, Jorhat, Dibrugarh and Tezpur of Assam besides Agartala.

The recruitment drive aimed to fill 156 positions across different categories, and around 19,000 candidates, all permanent residents of Tripura, have applied.

According to the TSCB authority, due to the lack of infrastructure to conduct the exams within the state, the venues had to shift to various locations in neighbouring Assam.

Various organisations, including Youth Congress and CPI-M’s Democratic Youth Federation of India have been demanding the bank authority to conduct the recruitment examination in Tripura to save time and money of the job aspirants.