'No one was provided with life jackets beforehand': Charges of negligence emerge

As the death toll in the Jabalpur boat cruise tragedy rose to nine, a tourist from Delhi, Sangeeta Kori, recounted the tragic accident, stating that no one on board was provided with life jackets beforehand and that sudden strong winds caused water to enter the vessel, leading to panic and eventually its capsizing.

She said, "No one was made to wear life jackets beforehand. When water started entering, they hurriedly distributed them, which caused chaos and people started snatching them. Then the cruise capsized. There was a lot of negligence."

"The pilot of the boat wasn’t listening at all. People from the village were shouting and signaling him to bring the cruise to a safer side, but he kept going the same way, which caused it to overturn suddenly. My brother broke open the storeroom and quickly threw life jackets to people," Sangeeta added.

The Madhya Pradesh government on Friday ordered a probe into the incident and banned the operation of such vessels in the state.

Chief Minister Mohan Yadav while expressing condolences to the families of the victims, said that locals who risked their lives to save others during the accident will be honoured on Independence Day for their bravery.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also condoled the tragedy and announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh from the PM National Relief Fund (PMNRF) for the next of kin of the deceased and Rs 50,000 for the injured.

The rescuers on Friday recovered bodies of five more poeple rising the death toll to nine.

A cruise boat carrying 29 passengers had overturned in the Bargi dam reservoir after encountering a sudden storm in Jabalpur district, on Thursday.

PWD minister Rakesh Singh termed the incident as most unfortunate. He said that the CM has announced compensation of Rs 4 lakh each for the kin of the deceased.

(With PTI inputs)