Krishna river boat tragedy: MP CM pays condolence

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Monday paid condolences to the families of bereaved in Andhra Pradesh boat capsize incident.

The Chief Minsiter took to Twitter and said, "Deeply anguished by the tragic boat incident in Andhra. My condolences to the families of those affected. Pray to god to give them the courage to tide over this grave situation."

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu earlier in the day visited the site of the Krishna river boat capsize incident.

Meanwhile, the death toll in the incident has risen to 20, following the recovery of four more bodies this morning.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also paid condolence to families who lost their loved ones in the incident.

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) Deputy Commandant, Santosh Kumar, said, "A rescue operation has been continuing since yesterday with four of our teams, while divers are also making efforts to trace the missing people."

The injured were brought to Andhra hospital in Vijayawada yesterday.

The state government announced an ex-gratia of Rs. 5 lakh to the families of the deceased.

As many as 41 people, including the boat driver, were in the boat at the time of the incident.

32 of the victims belonging to the Ongole town were on a picnic tour.

The boat that capsized at Krishna River in Ibrahimpatnam mandal, Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh, was reportedly a private one.

The boat turned turtle when it was about to reach the shore. The bodies were handed over to the victims' families after postmortem.

A survivour in the incident had alleged that the boat operator was trying to let in more passengers, which made the boat overloaded.