Koraput: Four more bodies were recovered Friday during the search operation taking the total casualty figure to five, including two minors, in the Patali riverboat tragedy in Koraput district. The country boat ferrying the passengers capsized at Tansing ghat in Patali river under Padua police station in Koraput district Thursday. While the body of one person was found floating on the river Thursday, four others went missing.
Sources said five people of Tansing village were going to Baldela village to attend a family function when the mishap took place. The fire brigade personnel from Nandapur were pressed Thursday to rescue the missing persons. The body of one Lalmani Sisa of Tansing village was recovered Thursday but the search operation was called off due to darkness. Bodies of the four missing persons were fished out from the river by the ODRAF and the fire brigade personnel after resuming the search operation Friday morning.
The four deceased persons were identified as Sashirekha Arlab, 35, Shanti Sisha, 7, Nabina Arlab, 14, and Pushpanjali Arlab, 6. The rescue work was going on in the presence of Pottangi MLA and Nandapur administration including Nandapur SDPO Sanjay Mohapatra. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik while expressing grief over the incident has announced an ex gratia of Rs 4 lakh to the next kin of the deceased and conveyed his condolence to the bereaved family members. Following the incident a pall of gloom descended on the village.
Notably, the Koraput Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA) here has provided only two boats for the communication of locals on Jalaput reservoir in Patali River. The boats remain defunct most of the time forcing the locals to depend on country-made boats to cross the river and risk their lives. Locals have demanded that the administration should immediately repair the defunct boats and provide at least one boat per panchayat to avoid such tragedies in the future.
