Patna boat horror: 21 bodies recovered; PM Modi, Nitish announce ex-gratia

National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) Director General R K Pachnanda on Sunday said that twenty one bodies have been recovered so far, after two boats carrying about 40 people turned turtle in Ganga river in Patna a day earlier.

Pachnanda told ANI that three NDRF team are at the site to recover more bodies and the rescue operation is underway.

"21 bodies have been recovered so far, search and rescue operation is underway. 3 NDRF teams are at the spot. We are trying our best. We have deported three teams for the operation. It is extremely tragic incident. People were taking boats one after another. When the people realised that their boat was capsizing they tried to jump to the other boat then both the boats capsized due to over load," he added.

The incident, took place near the bank around 6 pm yesterday. The rescue teams saved eight people at the time, while 25 others swam to the bank.
 

 The boat was returning from a kite festival organised in an island situated in the middle of the river as a part of the Makar Sankranti celebration.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced an ex-gratia from the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund (PMNRF) of Rs 2 lakh for next of kin of those deceased in the tragedy, and Rs 50,000 for those seriously injured in the incident. Earlier, expressing deep sorrow over the tragedy, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had announced an ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh and directed the departments concerned to speed up the rescue and relief operation.

He has also directed the officials of the Disaster Management, Police and District Administrators to speed up operation and to look into the arrangement made by the organizers at the bank of the River Ganga.