Rahul Gandhi visits ferry mishap site in Dhubri

Gandhi spent around 20 minutes at the spot and interacted with the family members of some of the persons who died or were missing in Monday's ferry capsize even as the victim's families said, "the visit had resulted in hampering the search operation".

Gandhi assured the affected families that the government would take all measures to recover the bodies through search teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), BSF and army.

"We shall take all measures to mitigate the anguish. All efforts are being taken to search the missing persons", he told the people.

Gandhi, who took a helicopter from the Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport in Guwahati, reached Medartary amid tight security around 3 pm and interacted with the victim's families for 20 minutes at a make-shift hut near the helipad.

However, his visit seems to have failed to assuage the local people who expressed displeasure over the entire machinery put in place for his safety and security at a time when two days of search and rescue operations had failed to account for nearly 300 missing passengers.

"Nearly 48 hours have gone by but till now no survivor has been found which is unfortunate", says Azgar Ali whose four-year old daughter is still missing.

In tears, the 50 year-old Dhubri resident said her daughter was crossing the river on the ill-fated boat when the tragedy took place.

"Now Rahul Gandhi is coming to take stock of the situation along with chief minister which has resulted in hampering the search operation", said Islam Ali, another resident of Dhubri, whose wife Rani Begum, is missing. (More) PTI PPB SB CR

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