Six drowned after boat capsizes in Khagaria

PATNA: Atleast six persons, including a woman, met a watery grave after a boat in which they were travelling, capsized in a tributary of river Ganga near Bhagwan Ghat under Parbatta police station in Khagaria district on Tuesday, which is around 220 kilometres from Patna.
Police sources said that all six bodies were fished out from the river which took almost six hours. They also said that the boat was overloaded and at least 14 persons were going to diara area on the other side of the tributary from Kentha Kanti panchayat for farming.
Parbatta block development officer (BDO) Dr Kundan (he goes by single name) said the four deceased were identified as Kailu Das (50), Indu Kumari (25), Aghori Sharma (52) and Prahlad Sharma.“Bodies of the rest two deceased were yet to be identified,” the BDO said.
He said that the accident took place at around noon. “Eight people who were on boat, swam to safety while rest six perished. The boatman Duckluss was also among the one who swam up to the river bank,” the BDO said.
The BDO, quoting the survivors, said that more than five big sacks filled with fertilizers were loaded on the small sized boat to carry it to diara area for use in fields. “Further on, 14 people boarded it resulting the boat become heavily overloaded,” the BDO said. He said that as soon as the boat left the bank, it lost balance due to fast winds and capsized.
He said that teams of State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) with two motor boats were pressed into action for searching the missing persons. Local divers were also used by the administration. “Five bodies of the missing persons were fished out almost within an hour but more than three hours were consumed to fish out the sixth body,” he said.
He said that Kailu was resident of Rahimpur panchayat while rest three were residents of Kentha Kanti panchayat. The BDO said the bodies were being sent for post mortem and call for ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh to family of the victims would be taken by senior officials.