Patna boat tragedy: Nitish Kumar holds review meeting

Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar held a high level meeting to review the boat tragedy that claimed 24 lives.

Mr Kumar took detailed information from Tourism department officials about the kite festival held at Sabbalpur diara (riverine area) in Patna on Saturday, according to an official release.

The passengers of the boat were returning to Ranighat in Patna from Sabalpur diara across the river after watching the kite festival arranged by the tourism department on the occasion of ‘Makar Sankranti’.

The Chief Minister also took stock of the situation from Disaster Management Department’s Principal Secretary Pratyaya Amrit and asked him to give a detailed report, the release said.

Mr Kumar ordered a high level probe into the incident.

Altogether, 24 bodies were fished out and identified, and none was missing in the incident.

During the meeting, Mr Kumar directed the officials to ensure that boats ply following guidelines.