A woman was killed and seven others, including three children, went missing after a boat capsized in the Mahanadi river in Odisha’s Jharsuguda on Friday.
The incident took place when around 50 passengers hailing from the Kharsia area in neighbouring Chhattisgarh, were returning in the boat after visiting a temple in Patharseni Kuda in Odisha’s Bargarh district.
The police said that over 40 people have been rescued so far and a search operation is underway to find the seven missing people.
According to Jharsuguda collector Kartikeya Goyal, the Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) is carrying out the search and rescue operation. With this, at least five scuba divers along with two underwater search cameras have been deployed in the search operation, reported PTI.
“We have rescued around 47-48 people so far and will send them back to their villages tonight. The body of a 35-year-old woman has been recovered. Four women and three children are missing. The search operation is underway,” Goyal told news agency ANI.
Following the incident, Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik has announced an ex-gratia of ₹four lakh to the family of the deceased.
Meanwhile, local Bargarh MP and senior BJP leader Suresh Pujari alleged that the boat was overcrowded and ferrying people much beyond its capacity. He also alleged that the boat was operating without a valid license. “It was not accorded a fitness certificate by the authority concerned and there was no lifeguard on it,” he said, as quoted by PTI.
The district authorities have said that the incident will be probed, however, at present, the priority is to rescue the missing persons.
In a similar incident earlier this week, six people, including two children, were killed and three people went missing after a boat capsized in the Jhelum River in Srinagar on Tuesday morning. The incident took place around 8 am as the boat, with 15 passengers onboard, overturned after hitting an iron pole in the middle of the river.