Thekkady boat was in untrained hands

According to sources in the Irrigation Department,the ill-fated boat had no srank to control the vessel and its driver,who had not much experience even in that capacity,had doubled up as the srank. The KTDC had admitted that the crew comprised only the driver and lascar. and sources went on to emphasise that the presence of a srank is crucial in controlling a boat.

A section of the passengers had already disclosed that the boat overturned when the driver suddenly turned the vessel to one side. The driver,Victor Samuel,had confessed that he used to turn the vessel in response to the passengers demand of obtaining a better view of animals in the Periyar sanctuary.

While the KTDC had claimed that the boat driver had a nearly 15-year experience in running wooden boats,sources revealed that he had earlier been working as a lascar and obtained his drivers licence only a year ago.

Another glaring area of negligence,according to the sources,was that the boat did not have the canal licence which is mandatory as per the law,neither its crew any training in rescue operations. The state also went ahead and introduced fibre boats without making the necessary amendment to the Ferries Act of 1921 which contains no word on the safety conditions regarding the latter as it was enacted years before fibre boats were introduced.

A proposal to incorporate safety conditions moved after the 2007 Boothathankettu boat tragedy had seen no movement.

Dileep Krishnan and Shiva Prasad,faculty members of the Department of Ship Technology at Cochin University of Science and Technology countered that claim that the boat had tilted when the passengers moved to one side. Even if the passengers move to one side,the boat should not lose it balance, they said.