4 held as jetty collapse toll hits 5

Kolkata: Two more bodies were recovered during a search operation on Thursday after a jetty broke down due to high tide at Bhadreshwar in Hooghly on Wednesday, claiming three lives. The toll in the tragedy is presently five while the disaster management group claimed that chances of survival of around a dozen people who are still missing is nil.

The Hooghly police also arrested four persons, who are the leasehloders of the jetty. A senior district police official informed that Sukamol Chakraborty, Dipankar Gangopadhyay, Subhas Pal and Sujit Gangopadhyay have been apprehended and have been charged with dereliction of duty. Taking a serious note of the incident, the transport department formed two separate teams led by officials of the secretary level to inspect the condition of all the ferry ghats across the state.

Narayan Swarup Nigam, managing director of West Bengal Transport Corporation, visited the accident spot and interacted with the district administration. “We have been asked to oversee the condition of as many ghats as possible in the next three days and submit a report to the transport minister,” a senior official of the transport department said.

Transport minister Suvendu Adhikari will chair a meeting next week on the basis of the reports. There are 668 ferry ghats across the state.

The accident occurred on Wednesday when the passengers were waiting at the bamboo jetty at Telinipara for boarding a launch to cross the river and reach Shyamnagar in North 24 Parganas district.