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68 die, over 150 still missing in Assam boat tragedy
At least
68 people died and over 150 were still missing after a ferry, with
over 250 people on board, capsized in heavy storm in Brahmaputra
river in Assam's Dhubri district Monday evening, officials said.
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Guwahati: The toll in
Monday's Assam ferry tragedy, possibly India's worst such
accident, is estimated to be around 270, with the search and
rescue parties failing to recover even a single missing person
Tuesday, an official said.
Only 80 people could be rescued during the search and rescue
operations, on since the accident in Dhubri district Monday
evening, and most of the other estimated 350 passengers remained
missing till Tuesday evening, the official said.
"Some bodies were fished out till late Monday night by rescuers
but it is difficult to estimate the toll as some relatives of the
deceased have taken the bodies home for burial," said a district
administration official, adding that only 17 bodies were sent for
post-mortem.
"It's almost 24 hours after the tragedy now and there is hardly
any chance that anyone is alive. Some of the survivors also told
us that most of the passengers of the ferry were women and
children," said the official.
Another official said: "We are yet to ascertain the exact number
of passengers on the ferry. As per our information, about 240
passengers bought tickets but there were passengers without
tickets too."
Abdul Aziz, a survivor, said there were over 300 passengers on the
ferry.
A Border Security Force (BSF) official, overseeing the rescue
operations, said it was possible that the bodies may have floated
downstream.
"We have been continuing with the rescue operation since last
evening. However, there is a strong undercurrent in the river and
the bodies might have been washed away," said S. Kumar.
"We are going to continue the rescue and search operation till
evening and then we would have to call it off," he said.
BSF water wing's deputy commandant Rajesh Bhandoria told IANS that
the search was on, though so far unsuccessful.
"Till 5 p.m. Tuesday, we were not able to find even a single
body," he said.
All border outposts (BOPs) of BSF's 22 and 162 Battalions along
the Brahmaputra have been alerted to look for survivors and search
for dead bodies.
Apart from this, BSF has also established contact with the Border
Guard Bangladesh (BGB) at Dhaka and also with its sector commander
at Rangpur and battalion commander at Kurigram.
"We have also requested to sensitize their riverine BOPs for
carrying out search for survivors and look for the dead bodies and
make immediate arrangements to hand over the same to BSF," said a
BSF spokesperson in Delhi.
Apart from the 20 deep water divers of the BSF, the district
administration had also used the services of helicopters to step
up the search and rescue operation from Tuesday morning.
Two senior cabinet ministers, Chandan Brahma and Nazrul Islam,
rushed to the Fakirganj area on Tuesday morning to take stock of
the situation.
"We have already ordered an inquiry into the whole incident to
find out as to what is the exact cause of the tragedy -- whether
it is the overloading of passengers or the weather," said Brahma.
He also assured the local people of improving the communication
infrastructure to Fakirganj.
"We have already arranged for technically sophisticated motor
launches to ply between Dhubri and Fakirganj and the new motor
launches will arrive by next week," he said and added that the
government had already sanctioned a bridge over the Brahmaputra
river to connect Jaleswar and Dhubri.
"The construction of the bridge will start soon," he added.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is a Rajya Sabha MP
from Assam, expressed his shock over the tragedy and announced
compensation of Rs.2 lakh each for the next of kin of the
deceased.
Apart from that, the Assam government has also an announced ex-gratia
payment of Rs.1.5 lakh each to the next of kin of the victims. The
kin will also get another amount of Rs.50,000 each from the Mukhya
Mantrir Jibanjyoti Bima Achoni, a life insurance scheme of the
state government that covers anyone in the age group of 3-80
years.
The state government had also announced that all the seriously
injured passengers of the ferry will be given Rs.50,000 each
besides making arrangements for free treatment to all the victims.
All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) chief Badaruddin Ajmal
has also announced that the party will give financial assistance
of Rs.2 crore to all the victims of the tragedy. All the 18
legislators of the AIUDF has also agreed to contribute their one
month's salary for the overall help of the victims of the tragedy.
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