The death toll in the boat accident in Odisha’s Kendrapara district rose to nine on Thursday as rescue workers fished out seven more bodies from the Mahanadi River, police said.
The bodies of two women were found on Wednesday after a fishing boat carrying picnickers, mostly children and teenagers, capsized near the confluence of the Mahanadi and Bay of Bengal in Kendrapara.
Officials said the bodies found on Thursday were of children in the age group of 8-17 years. A six-year-old girl is said to be missing.
Police have arrested the boatman Nirbhaya Swain.
State transport minister Nrusingha Sahu said action will be taken against those responsible for the accident after a probe by inland waterways director and executive engineer.
“We have enforced strict rules but public awareness is required,” he said.
Kendrapara superintendent of police Niti Shekhar said more than 55 people, including several children, had travelled from Hasina and adjoining villages of Kujang block in Jagatsinghpur district to Hukitola island on Wednesday morning near the confluence of Bay of Bengal and Mahanadi river.
“They had taken a small fishing boat and were on their way back in the evening when the boat could not move further after hitting a sandbar near Nipania. There are reports that some people in the boat jumped out of the boat which made it unstable and led to its capsize,” said Shekhar.
{{/usCountry}}“They had taken a small fishing boat and were on their way back in the evening when the boat could not move further after hitting a sandbar near Nipania. There are reports that some people in the boat jumped out of the boat which made it unstable and led to its capsize,” said Shekhar.
{{/usCountry}}“Local people could rescue 45 on the boat. But since the light was falling, the rescue operation was difficult due to the remoteness of the area,” he said.
Chief minister Naveen Patnaik announced an ex-gratia of ₹4 lakh each to the next of kin of those who died and directed authorities to provide free medical treatment to the injured.
An eyewitness told a local television channel that the picnickers did not take a bigger boat despite being advised to do so. The boat did not have any life jackets though the Odisha Boat Rules has made it mandatory to have life jackets a must for all boats. It is mandatory for all the passengers travelling in a boat to be covered by life insurance.
The last boat tragedy in Odisha was reported in June 2018 when six people, including four children, were drowned in the Chilika lake after their boat capsized.
Hukitola is a small island where Velleda, a French cargo ship carrying food grains, sugar, liquor, wine and other goods from France to India, reportedly sunk in a severe cyclone in 1875.
Englishman John Beames, who served as collector of undivided Cuttack district between 1875 and 1878, wrote about the shipwreck in his autobiography, ‘Memoires of a Bengal Civilian’.