Seven drown as boat capsizes in Bihar's Katihar

PATNA: Seven persons drowned after a boat carrying ten people capsized in Barandi river under Barari block in Katihar district on Saturday. The bodies of two women were fished out while rescue and search operation was one to trace the five others till evening.
CM Nitish Kumar expressed grief and ordered immediate ex gratia payment of Rs 4 lakh each to the next of kin of the deceased.
The incident occurred around 3.15pm when they were returning home at Marghia village after working on a small farm land on the other side of the river. As they reached in the middle of the river, their boat capsized. Two persons swam to safety while one was rescued by the local divers.
“Two bodies have been fished out from the river with the help of local divers. The deceased have been identified as 19-year-old Ruby Kumari, the daughter of Dinesh Paswan, and Uma Devi (42), the wife of Mahesh Paswan of Kadar Tola. Five persons are yet to be traced,” said Lalan Kumar, the circle officer (CO) of Burari.
Those missing were Shakeel Alam (6), Babita Kumari (19), Dukhan Paswan (51) and his daughter Ruchi Kumari (16) and Vikas Kumar (14).
The CO told TOI that a team of 10 local divers had been pressed into service to trace the missing persons. “The SDRF team has been called for the rescue operation. Efforts are on to look for survivors, if any,” he said, adding that the incident might have happened due to overloading as the boat was quite small for ten people.
Kumar said the labourers had gone to Laxmipur Bahiyar to harvest paddy and the incident took place when they were returning home with the crop.
As soon as the information about the incident was received, MLA Vijay Singh, Barari police, CO and other officials reached the spot for search operation.