3 drown as boat capsizes in Saryu

LUCKNOW : Three people, including a boatman, drowned on Wednesday afternoon when a boat carrying six people capsized in Saryu river in Ayodhya, police said. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath announced an ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh each to the families of the deceased.

LUCKNOW : Three people, including a boatman, drowned on Wednesday afternoon when a boat carrying six people capsized in Saryu river in Ayodhya (Faizabad district), nearly 135 kilometres east of Lucknow, police said.

The incident took place when three people, who had come to Ayodhya for a ‘mundan’ ceremony of a child, went to the middle of the river along with three boatmen to click selfies.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath announced an ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh each to the families of the deceased and directed the police and district administration to start rescue and relief operation.

The CM asked the officials to provide assistance to rescued people and directed all the district magistrates in the state to take steps to check overloading in boats.

Confirming the incident over phone, senior superintendent of police (SSP), Faizabad, Akhilesh Kumar Chaurasia said three people of a family, who had come to Ayodhya for the ‘mundan’ ceremony of a child, went in the middle of the river to click selfies. “Joginder, one of the rescued members of the family, said Monu and Bahadur wanted to click selfies while taking a boat ride. Joginder, Monu and Bahadur along with three boatmen went to the middle of the river at around 3.30 pm,” the SSP said. He added that the remaining members of the family stayed back to perform ‘mundan’ rituals.

Chaurasia said as the boat capsized, Bahadur and boatman Rakesh got trapped below the boat. “Two boatmen managed to swim out of the river while Monu and Joginder were rescued by divers. The bodies of Bahadur and Rakesh were fished out while Monu died during treatment at the hospital,” he said.

On August 24, at least 10 people had drowned after a boat carrying 27 people capsized in the Ganga in Bijnor district.

The remaining 17 people were rescued by the police flood team divers.

› Two boatmen managed to swim out of the river while Monu and Joginder were rescued by divers

,AKHILESH KUMAR CHAURASIA, senior superintendent of police