Hyderabad:
At least 12 persons drowned and four others are missing after an overloaded boat capsized in Godavari river in Andhra Pradesh on Saturday morning. Fifty people have been rescued so far.
The country-made boat ferrying about 40-50 pilgrims to a popular place of worship, Laskshmi Narasimha temple in West Godavari District, overturned at around 0630 hours in the morning.
Four children and five women are among the dead. The victims, mostly belonging to fishermen families from nearbyvillages, were proceeding to have a holy dip at the temple on the otherside when the mishap occurred, official sources said.
Rescue operations have been launched by East and West Godavari district administration officials to trace the missing but authorities fear the toll will go up.
A chopper from the Eastern Command Naval base with two boats and expert divers from Visakhapatnam have been summoned to trace the missing persons, Agricultural Minister N Raghuveera Reddy said.
An ex-gratia of Rs one lakh to the kin of the deceased has been announced, he said.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah has directed district in-charge ministers Vatti Vasanth Kumar (Rural Development) and P Satyanarayana (Arogyasri) to supervise and speed up the rescue work. (With PTI input)