TARN TARAN: Eight children including three girls, drowned last week in a distributary of river Beas at Goindwal Sahib when the boat in which 13 children were ferrying for joy ride capsized. All the deceased children belonged to village Muradpur near Tam Taran and related to each other. There was a cover of gloom all over the village. At the same time postmortem of dead bodies was being conducted in local Civil Hospital. The relatives and nears and dears of deceased children were assembled there.
Dalip Singh was the most unfortunate father who lost his two daughters and a son in the boat accident. He was not able to narrate the incident as he was trying to console his sobbing wife. She was lying outside the postmortem unit in Semi-conscious state.
According to Senior Superintendent of Police Tarn Taran Gurcharan Singh, who reached on the spot within half an hour, there was “dastar bandi” function in the family of one of the relatives of deceased in village Muradpura. All the relatives had celebrated the function and went to pay obeisance at Gurdwara Bouli Sahib at Goindwal Sahib. SSP said that after paying obeisance, the children desired to have a joy ride in boat which is used to ferry passengers.
Another grieved father of Bikramjit Singh alias Vicky (7) Said that the water at the was not so deep. He said that the children cried for help and many persons rushed from nearby to save the drowning children. He said that most of the children had got stuck in marshy land under the water. Efforts to pull them out failed and they died crying for help. He said that all the deceased belonged to close relatives and members of scheduled caste families.
The police has arrested boatman Banta Singh alias Fauzi and a case under Section 304A was registered against him, An eyewitness Said that though boatman was an experienced person, the cause of boat Turing down could not be established immediately. However, a civil official present in the hospital said that boatman had stated to the police that water had leaked into the boat from backside where a portion of the boat was broken.
Civil Surgeon, Amritsar, B.S. Parmar said that postmortem of all the killed children was conducted and bodies handed over to their parents. Chief Minister, Harcharan Singh Braras expressed profound grief and sorrow over the tragic incident of boat tragedy in the Beas River at Goindwal in which eight precious lives of children were lost. He directed the district administration to provide best free medical treatment to the rescued children who are admitted in the hospital. The Chief Minister conveyed heart felt sympathies to the members of bereaved families.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 10, 1996
