Safety norms for Hooghly boat rides go for a toss

KOLKATA: Two days after police filed chargesheet in the death of Jadavpur University student Raunak Saha, who drowned in the Hooghly on November 23, 2016, TOI visited Pani Ghat and Judges Ghat — two popular sites for boat rides — and found that the issue of passengers’ safety remained only on papers without any proper vigilance by the cops. The chargesheet implicated boatman Sheikh Saifuddin, who apparently deserted the boat midstream and moved to another boat.

The boatmen, however, blamed the passengers for flouting norms imposed by Hooghly River Traffic police. “We made them wear the life jackets provided by the police, yet they take them off minutes after the boat ride starts. We dare not to insist on the compliance of safety measures as they take offence and often hurl abuses at us,” said a boatman at Pani Ghat.

Abdulla, another boatman, did not see any fault on the part of Saifuddin. “The passengers, mostly young couples who seek privacy in the midstream, ask the boatman to leave the boat and go to another boat. That’s why we often take an additional boat to the midstream,” he added.
The accused, who had allegedly left the five friends “unguarded” almost in the middle of the river to chat with a fellow boatman aboard a barge, had claimed he had no clue that he was flouting safety norms.
On paper, there are around 110 vessels with “fitness certificates” to ferry people on the Hooghly. But the actual number is higher. According to the Inland Vessels Act, a ferry must be equipped with life jackets and buoys for it to carry passengers.