Royal Vasista had no permit to ply: AP tourism minister

DEVIPATNAM (EAST GODAVARI): On Sunday, did the ill-fated boat, Royal Vasista, flout guidelines issued by the state government in 2017? The Water Resources Department had issued a second flood warning for the Godavari a week ago and nearly 40 villages in Devipatnam mandal were under flood scare for the last few weeks.
It is not clear now if officials carried out any mandatory checks on the boat at Devipatnam. State tourism minister M Srinivasa Rao said Royal Vasista did not have the permission from the tourism department to ply. However, it is learnt that boat drivers told the Devipatnam police that they had a licence from the Kakinada port.
Boat services in the Godavari were suspended a few weeks ago due to the flood situation. Now, it is not clear whether the boat operator had obtained any permission to operate the boat again after the suspension of the services. For the last few weeks, nearly 40 villages in Devipatnam mandal were hit by the flood in Godavari. The flash floods entered many villages in the mandal, where the boat mishap occurred on Sunday. It is alleged that the officials did not try to stop tourist boats in heavy flood conditions on Saturday and Sunday.
According to Devipatnam residents, Royal Vasista was the second boat they had seen in the last few days after the region was badly hit by the floods.
K Vasu, a villager of Thootigunta, said the villagers rescued nearly 20 passengers on Sunday. “But by the time we went to rescue people, many were already drowned,” said Vasu.