19 Dead In Godavari Boat Capsize

Kakinada: At least 19 people were killed and a person is missing after a boat capsized on Wednesday in the Godavari River here, West Godavari district collector Kartikeya Mishra said. Search operations are underway to trace the missing person, while a total of 17 members were rescued by the teams from the Indian Navy, State Disaster Management department and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).

"As per the Chief Minister's orders, cart trailing will be carried out between Manturu and Konda Modalu. Separate service boats will be operated to transport passengers and their luggage. Currently, all the service boats towards the upstream of the river have been cancelled," the collector said.

On Thursday, three people were rescued by the NDRF personnel, taking the count of rescued people to 18. It is learnt that NDRF and Navy personnel have carried out intense rescue operations for over 20 hours to pull out the boat from the river using huge cranes. Since it was difficult to bring the boat onto the river bank, the personnel had to cut it into several parts to find the deceased.

YSRCP announces financial help to the bereaved families

The YSR Congress Party has extended financial help to the families of the victims in the boat mishap. YSRCP MLC Pilli Subhash Chandra Bose said, "Party President YS Jagan Mohan Reddy will personally visit the bereaved families and provide Rs 50,000 to families of adults and Rs 25,000 to families of children who were killed in the unfortunate incident."

Several YSRCP leaders including Eluru parliamentary constituency President and MLC Aalla Nani, MLC Pilli Subhash Chandra Bose. CBC member Jakkampudi Vijaya Lakshmi, Thellam Balaraju, Karumuri Nageshwara Rao, Tuni MLA Dhadishetty Raja and Anantha Udayabhaskar among others visited the spot and condoled the families of victims.