SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Feb 25: Even after 24 hours of the Barakar river boat tragedy, the joint rescue teams of Jamtara and Dhanbad district administration are yet to fish out any missing person till 5 pm on Friday.
While the NDRF teams of Deoghar are searching at Birgao- Shyampur villages in Jamtara district side of Barakar river, where the boat capsized, rescue teams of Dhanbad district administration and Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) are also hunting in Nirsa Barbendia Ghat ( Dhanbad) side of the water.
Under the supervision of SDM Prem Kumar Tiwari, the Dhanbad district administration has pressed in 20 boats of local rescuers in the water from the early morning of Friday. Even Nirsa SDPO Pitamber Singh Kharwar, Nirsa police station officer-in-charge Dilip Yadav and circle officer (CO) Nitin Shivam Gupta were also joined in a search operation on a separate boat but failed to trace any of them.
Over dozen villagers of Birgao- Shyampur villages of Jamtara district are feared missing after the boat carrying them from Barbendia Ghat of Nirsa ( Dhanbad) to Birgao Ghat of Jamtara capsized on Thursday at 5 pm. Villagers claimed five people sailed out from water.
A senior official of Jamtara district administration, who was camping at Birgao Ghat, said that rescue teams had not traced any missing person till 5 pm but Deputy Commissioner( Faiz Ahmed Mumtaz) who is monitoring both sides of the rescue operation would say about it officially.
Former Nirsa MLA Arup Chatterji of Marxists Coordination Committee (MCC) and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) senior leader Ashok Monday also camped there the whole day for search operation but returned in the evening from Barbedia Ghat of Nirsa.
