Nineteen bodies have been recovered so far after a boat capsized in Krishna river late on 12 November. The overloaded boat carrying 38 people capsized in the Krishna river near Vijayawada, resulting in the death of 19 tourists, the police said.
State disaster response and fire services department’s director general N Satyanarayana said while two bodies were recovered by teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), another was fished out by personnel of his department.
“There is suspicion that four more persons are missing. We are pressing scuba divers into service to trace the missing persons. Since there is lot of water movement because rescue teams are at work, the bodies, if any, could have floated away. We have intensified the operation,” Satyanarayana told reporters.
Tourism Minister Bhuma Akhila Priya ordered an inquiry into the incident and directed her department officials to ascertain whether the boat operator had requisite permissions.
The incident occurred when the boat set off for Pavitra Sangamam at Ferry village near Vijayawada from Bhavani Island, the police said.
Most of the passengers were said to be members of the Ongole Walkers Club in Prakasam district while some were from Nellore who were on a visit to Vijayawada.
Two teams each comprising 30 NDRF personnel, a 45-member team of the State Disaster Rescue Force (SDRF) and 60 members of the Disaster Response and Fire Services Department have been roped into the rescue operation.
Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Deputy Chief Minister (Home) N China Rajappa, Opposition leader YS Jaganmohan Reddy and others expressed grief over the incident.
China Rajappa, who was supervising rescue operations at the accident spot, announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs 5 lakh each to the kin of the deceased.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also tweeted his condolences through his PMO handle.
Two persons, who were rescued from the tragedy, complained of sickness and were shifted to a government general hospital in Vijayawada, the officials said.
Pradesh Congress Committee president N Raghuveera Reddy visited the accident spot and later the hospital.
One of the deceased was identified as Prabhakar Reddy, a former president of the BJP Prakasam district unit.
No comments:
Post a Comment