The boat accident near Patna which claimed 24 lives. (Fille Photo)
A day after the boat accident near Patna which claimed 24 lives, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had ordered an inquiry, ordering that lapses of each and every department that contributed to the tragedy be pinned down. But 48 hours after the accident, the probe had made little headway in finding out which department was involved in the kite festival, which had led to tragedy.
Eyewitnesses had said that the boat had capsized on Saturday evening due to overcrowding as people were returning from a kite flying festival organised by the state Tourism Department as part of harvest festival Makar Sankranti. The Tourism Department had blamed a Disney mela held nearby, saying the kite festival was already over. It was not known who gave permission for the Disney Mela.
Officials say there was no coordination between the Tourism department and the Saran district administration. The kite festival and boat tragedy had taken place in an area in Saran district. But the District Magistrate and the Superintendent of Police of Saran neither visited the site to oversee the preparations nor were present on the day of festival.
The arrangement to ferry people by the Tourism Department was not only inadequate, but the two boats even disappeared for over an hour leading to a huge build-up of the crowds at the ferry landing. The boats returned only after intervention by the senior officials, forcing people to take private boats in the interim.
Officials further said that a clear cut instruction that no boat will ply will after sunset was flouted.
The state Disaster Reserve Force men were deployed on the river, but instead of patrolling on boats, they were asked to ferry people. So when the accident took place, they took 45 minutes to reach -- which contributed to the loss of lives. Two divers from a government-run launch had managed to save 15 people.