Kolkata: At least eight persons died and 15 others are missing after a motorized boat overturned in Muriganga river near Lot no. 8 in Kakdwip.
Four of the victims came on a pilgrimage from Delhi and they had gone to visit Kapil Muni temple in Sagar Island.
A 226 member team had come from New Delhi to visit the temple today and the incident took place around 3.30 p.m. when the were returning to Kachuberia. They all boarded a vessel and reached the Sagar Island this morning. A senior police official said while they were returning to Lot no. 8 they were stranded in the vessel following low tide. Three motorized boats were arranged to send them to Kachuberia. One of the motorized boats’ suddenly capsized near the Lot no. 8 and at least seven of them were drowned.
Four of the victims came on a pilgrimage from Delhi and they had gone to visit Kapil Muni temple in Sagar Island.
A 226 member team had come from New Delhi to visit the temple today and the incident took place around 3.30 p.m. when the were returning to Kachuberia. They all boarded a vessel and reached the Sagar Island this morning. A senior police official said while they were returning to Lot no. 8 they were stranded in the vessel following low tide. Three motorized boats were arranged to send them to Kachuberia. One of the motorized boats’ suddenly capsized near the Lot no. 8 and at least seven of them were drowned.
Again a repetition of Thekkady, Kerala in 2009 and it is always the same. Few points to consider:
ReplyDelete1. The boat was supposed to carry 40, they were carrying 72. How? Who is supposed to check this?
2. When the boat reached its mooring point, all people came to one side, since there were no one to supervise the passengers, and it toppled. It was ebb tide and this part of the time ebb tides are stronger than the high tides.
3. The passengers were not provided with Life jackets, there were no life saving equipments on board or even on the jetty and more of all there were no trained lifesavers or life guards among the boat crew or around to take charge of the situation.
We had been writing to this Sunder affairs minister for quite some time now to get these boatmen trained as life guards and enforce certain safety norms. In fact we opened one training centre in Sunderbans itself to facilitate this. We have even written to Mr. Atanu Raha, CCF, to train the forest guards and people around who deals with the tourists. But alas, it seems the Govt. of West Bengal has bought some special eye and ear plugs from some foreign company, so that these appeals do not penetrate their God recommended body parts and 'disturb' them to do some work in this respect.
These people forget, one life lost is a National loss of few thousand rupees in financial terms let alone the emotional value.
It is a matter of great frustration, since all it takes is 65 hours of training to transfer swimmer into a Life Guard, who can save a life.
Pradipta Ghosal
Vice President
Rashtriya Life Saving Society (India)