Boat with 40 capsizes in India, at least 21 dead

At least 21 persons died and 19 others went missing on Saturday evening after an overloaded boat carrying around 40 people capsized in the river Ganga near the NIT (National Institute of Technology) Ghat in Bihar’s Patna in the heart of the state capital.

The number of deceased persons is likely to increase. Separate teams of NDRF and SDRF have reached the site of boat mishap and have begun rescue operations.

Shocked over the mishap, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has ordered a high-level probe into the mishap. He ordered the principal secretary of the disaster management, Pratyay Amrit, Patna DIG Shalin and Patna DM Sanjay Kumar Agrawal to rush to the place of the mishap and personally monitor the ongoing rescue operations.

CM also ordered payment of ex gratia to the next kin of deceased persons at the earliest. As per the state government`s guidelines, an amount of Rs 4 lakh is paid as ex gratia to the kin of persons killed in any kind of disaster within the state.

Nitish Kumar has also asked the probe officials to find out what the programme was for which such a large number of people had travelled to that area of the river. He has also asked officials to find out what arrangements the organizers had taken.

He also ordered cancellation of all programmes to be held in that diara area, where the mishap took place, in coming days.

The toll may rise further.

Source: Times of India