Search operations are on for more than a hundred people who are still missing after a crowded steamer carrying more than 300 passengers sank in the Brahmaputra river in Assam on Monday after being caught in a severe storm.
Mystery shrouded over the actual death toll as authorities claimed that a number of family members took away the bodies to their respective villages without post-mortem.
Western range DIG Surendar Kumar told this newspaper that they have persuaded and brought back at least 17 bodies so far from their respective villages. “We will return the bodies soon after post-mortem,” he said.
As confusion prevailed, authorities on Tuesday refrained from giving any figure on actual death toll. The district authorities claimed that search operations was carried out at many places down the stream and most of the bodies may have got swept away, making it even more difficult to estimate how many may have actually been on board.
Local people on the India-Bangladesh border in Dhubri district reported sighting some bodies driven downstream by the swift currents of the mighty river.
Medartary, on the south bank for which the ferry was headed, is only 15 km to the Indo-Bangladesh frontier.
Dhubri deputy commissioner Kumud Chandra Kalita said, “The death toll may rise as more than 100 are missing and the exact toll will be known after the search operation.”
Meanwhile, family members of those missing were getting restive as authorities were alleged to have not been making available any information.
A victim of boat tragedy, Nazrul Islam, who lost his wife and two children, said, “The government is not giving the correct figures. There were more than 400 passengers in the ferry who were crossing the river from Kacharighat area of Dhubri district.”
Mr Islam in tears said, “My wife and two children were inside the boat but security forces have not been able to trace the bodies.” Mr Islam who, was on the top of the boat, swam to shore.
The search operation was being carried out by the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF), the BSF and the Army.
Two helicopters were being used, but rough weather was hampering the search operations, authorities at Dhubri, the district headquarters, said.
Informing that majority of the bodies were fished out by local people and survivors of the boat tragedy, security sources said that muddy waters, bad weather and strong currents have hampered search for survivors on Tuesday morning. The Army has rushed in two infantry columns, two engineer task forces with six boats, 12 divers and medical teams to assist in the rescue operations.
The boat tragedy has also exposed the ill preparedness of disaster relief forces as they could reach to the place of occurrence only on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has announced an ex-gratia of `2 lakh each for next of kin of those drowned. The PM also spoke to the chief minister and offered all possible help to the state.