Days after a boat capsized in Barakar river in Jharkhand's Jamtara district, six more bodies were recovered by NDRF teams on Monday, taking the toll in the accident to 14, an official said.
Chief Minister Hemant Soren during the day announced an ex gratia of Rs 4 lakh each to the next of kin of those who lost their lives in the accident.
"Six bodies were recovered today while eight had been recovered yesterday taking the total bodies to 14, including two children and three women," Jamtara Deputy Commissioner Faiz Ahmed Mumtaz told PTI.
He said the search by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) divers is almost over.
Replying to a question by BJP legislator from Nirsa, Aparna Sengupta, in the Assembly, Soren said, "Rs 4 lakh compensation each will be given to the families of people who died in the accident from disaster management department."
Several leaders of the opposition parties had said the accident could have been avoided if the Barbendia bridge over the river was operational.
They had said people have been taking the water route to cross the river as the repair works of the bridge have not been completed.
The boat had capsized when it was going to Berigaon in Jamtara from Berbedia in Nirsa on February 24.
Soren said the government will soon conduct a feasibility study for the construction of a bridge over the river as demanded by the BJP MLA.
"Based on the feasibility study, the size and budget of the bridge will be decided," Soren said.
Soon after the accident, National Disaster Response Force teams from Ranchi and Deoghar were engaged to find out those who had gone missing.
Notably, two pillars of the Barbendia bridge got damaged due to a flood in 2009.
In 2014, a high-level team of the state government had visited the site for assessment but "no step" was taken further, Sengupta had said.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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