Patna: Thursday's bus accident has exposed chinks not only in the manner in which public vehicles are allowed to ply, but also laid bare the lack of mechanism for getting authentic information whenever there is a crisis.

Around 6pm on Thursday, disaster management and relief minister Dinesh Chandra Yadav declared that the death toll in the accident was 27. This prompted chief minister Nitish Kumar to mourn the tragedy by observing a minute's silence at a public function in Patna and even announcing ex gratia for the next of kin of those "killed". Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi told reporters the toll was 24. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi had tweeted about the mishap and mourned the "deaths".

Barely three hours later, around 9pm, the government clarified that no one in fact had died in the accident, which took place when a Delhi-bound bus caught fire after falling into a roadside ditch on National Highway 28 in East Champaran, around 180km northwest of Patna.

For the better part of about five hours since the accident, which occurred around 3.30pm, the entire government machinery and the Opposition relied mainly on news channels and social media for information. "The manner in which the government reacted to the accident shows that the administrative machinery relied on the media to gather authentic information from the field and not its own agency," a senior IAS officer said under cover of anonymity.

He clarified that no government official had reached the site of occurrence even after three hours of the mishap and were passing on to their bosses information culled from the media. The confusion over the death figures persisted till 9pm despite the fact that the Kotwa police station is less than three km away from the place of occurrence, the officer said.

Minister Dinesh Yadav, who had claimed on Thursday that 27 persons had died, said on Friday that there were no casualties. "Yes, I did say that 27 people had died in the incident. It was based on information from local sources, but I also said that only the final report will be considered," he said.

Principal secretary, disaster management, Prataya Amrit too had told a private news channel on Thursday that at least eight deaths had been confirmed. Earlier, he had said that over 20 passengers were killed.

On Friday, Amrit said: "After a thorough search by the teams of the NDRF, SDRF and the FSL, no body or remains of any human body were found. It came as a relief that no casualty has been reported in the incident."

The confusion arose because of the lack of clarity on the number of passengers travelling in the bus. Some passengers, who were injured in the mishap, claimed that a total of 32 persons were on board the private bus, which had started its journey from Muzaffarpur around 2pm.

On Friday, it emerged that only 13 passengers, besides the driver and the cleaner, were onboard the private air-conditioned bus.

Transport secretary Sanjay Kumar Agarwal said: "It is an eye-opener. The state government has taken serious note of the incident. Stern action will be initiated against the bus owners for plying their buses without valid permit."

Talking to The Telegraph, East Champaran district magistrate Raman Kumar said on Friday: "There were 13 passengers on board and there is no loss of human life in the accident." He also confirmed the safe return of the five passengers who were missing after the accident.

Raman further said: "We approached the five passengers who were found safe. They had left the site of occurrence immediately after the incident." The district magistrate said an FIR had been lodged against the driver Bijendra Kumar and helper Ratan in connection with the accident.

Additional director-general (headquarters) S.K. Singhal said: "We are waiting for the report of the district magistrate and the superintendent of police on the accident."

An investigating officer said that both the driver and helper of the bus were absconding after the accident. Authoritative sources said the bus had got its registration number from Etawah in Uttar Pradesh and was running without a valid permit.