Patna: A lawyer on Monday moved the Patna high court , demanding an “independent” probe into the boat tragedy in which 24 people lost their lives opposite the Law College ghat in Patna on Makar Sankranti on Saturday.Lawyer Mani Bhushan Pratap Segar in his PIL has alleged that the Patna and Saran district administrations as well as the Bihar State Tourism Development Corporation (BSTDC) are to blame for the tragedy and, as such, they should be punished under the Bihar Disaster Management Act, 2007.The PIL has also sought a directive to the state government to formulate a plan for prevention of such accidents in future.According to the petition, at least 30,000 people had gone to Sabbalpur riverine area to participate in a kite festival organised on the fateful day by the tourism corporation. But proper arrangements had not been made by the corporation for their transportation and safety.People, the petition says, started panicking after it was announced around 3pm that the tourism corporation’s boats would not ply after 4pm. This led to overloading on the few private boats plying in the Ganga. One of such “overloaded” boats sank, killing 24 people.The Bihar chief secretary, home secretary, DGP and other senior state officials have been made respondents in the PIL, which also alleges that there was no arrangement for crowd management. “Divers were not deployed... While sufficient number of boats were not arranged for common people, the State Disaster Response Force boats were being used for ferrying dignitaries,” the PIL says.Meanwhile, at least 100 National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel on Monday continued their search operations in over 30km area in the river in which the boat sank on Saturday evening.“Even though we don’t have reports of any more missing person, we sent a team today to Fatuha in the downstream of Ganga to check whether any body was swept that far,” NDRF’s Battalion 9 commandant Vijay Sinha told TOI.

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