`Tourists' have a field-day at the crash-site

`Tourists' have a field-day at the crash-site
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

PATNA, JULY 18: It is ironic, but with sundry icecream-vendors, peanuts and other snack-kiosks, temporary tea-stalls, well-dressed people, school-children with uniforms visiting it, the crash-site at Chitkorah, Gardanibagh looked like a picnic-spot.

Parvin Kumar, a small trader from Bhagalpur, had come to Patna for some work. As he had heard about the crash he came rushing. ``I will tell my children about the crash and that I have seen it,'' he said.

There were thousands of people like him who came yesterday and were pouring in today also, with all the enthusiasm of tourists. This, of course, gave the police and the CISF personnel a tough time guarding the site.

Compared to that of yesterday, the security was lax and hundreds of people were having a chance to sneak into the actual site. ``I was able to get a piece of metal from the plane,'' Rohit Kumar, an employee of a private firm told this reporter. ``I have heard that good utensils are made from aeroplane metal,'' Kumar told this reporter. There were other people like him, though very few, who were interested in fishing out some souvenir from the mangled remains of the plane, including broken chairs etc.

But local people as well as the CISF and police personnel guarding the area denied that there was any looting of things from the site. ``We have been guarding the area since the crash had occurred and we did not allow any theft to happen,'' B M Sinha, a CISF sub-inspector informed. Ashok Singh, another sub-inspector from the Gardanibagh police-station, even paid encomiums to the goodness of the people. ``We must complement the people that there was no attempt of theft at the site,'' he said, ``And in any case, what is there to take. Everything has been burnt down.''