In an early-morning tragedy, 11 persons were killed when a boat capsized during the immersion of a Lord Ganesha idol at Khatlapura Ghat on the Lower Lake of Bhopal on Friday.
Six persons have been rescued and none are missing, Bhopal district collector Tarun Pithode told THE WEEK. He said that the rescue operations are over and bodies will be handed over to families following postmortem.
The collector said that a magisterial probe has been ordered into the incident. Meanwhile, the Jehangirabad police have registered a case against two boatmen.
The magisterial inquiry was ordered by Chief Minister Kamal Nath, who expressed deep shock over the incident. Kamal Nath said that the government was with the families of the deceased and all possible help would be extended to them. He also directed payment of compensation of Rs 4 lakh each to the kin of the dead. “Those found guilty for the incident following probe will not be spared,” Kamal Nath said.
The incident occurred when a large group of people from 1100 Quarters locality in Piplani were trying to immerse a huge idol of Lord Ganesha at Khatlapura Ghat—a designated immersion spot on the Lower Lake—around 4.30am on Friday. Another boat was reportedly tied to this boat to maintain balance, but when the idol was being lowered, the boat upturned and capsized, taking down all those who were on it.
Sources said that none of the youth on the ill-fated boat had worn life jackets and no one prevented a large number of people from getting into the vessel. The Ganesha immersion process, which commenced on Thursday evening, continued through the night. The smaller idols are immersed first, but the huge community idols are traditionally immersed during the wee hours after long processions with huge fanfare.
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Earlier, it was reported that three to four persons were still missing, but Pithode confirmed that 11 bodies were found and six people had been rescued and none were missing.
A bevy of politicians including former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Public Relations Minister P.C. Sharma, Congress MLA Arif Masood and BJP MLAs Vishwas Sarang and Krishna Gaur reached the spot.
Chouhan, while calling the incident heart-rending and offering tributes to the dead, said that if the administration was alert, such an incident would not have occurred.
