Day after, remains of govt apathy

While Kerala mourned the schoolchildren on a picnic who drowned in the Bhoothathankettu reservoir near here on Tuesday...

While Kerala mourned the schoolchildren on a picnic who drowned in the Bhoothathankettu reservoir near here on Tuesday, the state government decided to take a belated re-look at safety and rescue issues in this state which banks heavily on water-based tourism.

Fifteen out of the106 kids, all aged 10 to 12 years, and three teachers from St Antony’s School in Elavoor drowned when one of the three overcrowded boats carrying them overturned in the reservoir, near the Thattekkad bird sanctuary. The boats used were small dinghies meant to carry no more than eight people, with air-filled fibre floats lashed to either side and a makeshift structure straddling it on top, on which passengers sit. Some 37 children and four teachers were on board when water started seeping in and the boat overturned in no time, after the children shifted their weight to one side.

Some of the kids hung on to the overturned craft, others swam to the bank. Scared, some of the surviving kids ran and hid themselves in the wild thickets in the area in the darkness, and were located and brought back after many hours of search through the night.

Story continues below this ad

For close to two hours after the mishap, the only rescuers around were the local people who jumped in and pulled out children from around and under the overturned boat. Angry locals say that the cops and the fire and rescue men who turned up later did not even try to use the many similar private water crafts available in the area, and the lone police boat was made available many hours later.

District collector Mohammed Haneesh and Fisheries Minister S Sarma, who arrived a few hours later, were mobbed by angry villagers. The government had sought the navy’s help for rescue, but the naval team arrived after the dead and the injured had been removed.

Though the mishap spot is a regular water picnic area, it had no lights or rescue facilities. Though government regulations say that no boats could ply without a safety and fitness certificate from the state Chief Inspector of Boats, about a dozen makeshift boats of the kind that overturned had been ferrying picnickers and locals there — all of them vanished a few hours after the tragedy.

But Water Resources Department sources say hundreds of boats with no certificates are plying in Kerala waters. Water Resources minister NK Premachandran announced a probe by his department on Wednesday, in the wake of the mishap.

Story continues below this ad

Besides, the regulations also say that no boats should ply in the area after 6 pm, as a safety precaution. The accident, however, had occurred after 6.30 pm.

The Kerala Human Rights Commission has taken a suo motu case for the tragedy, and has asked the state Chief Secretary to respond to its notice. Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan, who ordered all his ministers to the spot and flew in from New Delhi to join them, has announced a judicial probe and a Rs 2 lakh assistance to the kin of the dead. The CM has also asked the state DGP to probe and report to him.

Education Minister MA Baby declared his department would now frame regulations on schools taking out students for picnics and excursions, which he said would apply to all private and government schools across the state.