UP: Boat carrying a dozen passengers capsizes in Yamuna in Baghpat; 1 dead, several missing

MEERUT: A boat carrying more than a dozen people, mostly women capsized in Yamuna in Baghpat district on Thursday evening. Body of a young woman was fished out while 2 others were rescued by the divers and villagers but around 9 to 10 people are still missing.
Senior administrative officials including DM and SSP have reached the spot to oversee rescue operations. According to officials there is considerable difficulty in rescue operations because of darkness. Besides, the identity of passengers on the boat is also a challenge to establish as the boat was reportedly coming from Haryana towards Baghpat.
DM Shakuntala Gautam district magistrate (DM) said, "The accident occurred near Kuchha Ghat under Baghpat (kotwali) police station. We have recovered one body of an unidentified young girl aged approximately 17 years, which has been sent for post-mortem. While two others have been rescued in injured condition including 60-year-old Krishna Devi. She has given us three names Rajesh, Jannat and Monika who are missing but she is not sure how many persons were there on the boat. We have sent a team to theother side of river to get the exact figure. There are also reports that around five persons who knew swimming rescued themselves. But nothing is clear as of now."
DM Gautam further revealed, "I have spoken to commandant NDRF and a team is on the way to the site of accident. We have dequate arrangement with ambulances and medical staff on attention. Meanwhile we have deployed seven divers to locate missing persons."
Notably, a similar accident had occurred in Yamuna in 2017 in which more than 2 dozen (mostly women) had drowned when a boat carrying around 55 people had capsized in monsoon fed Yamuna.
Owing to the absence of bridge in the area, boat ferrying is a common practice though there is no contract released by the local administration for it which means it is an illegal activity.