The body of the youth Kundan Singh (25) who is feared to have drowned in Ganga near lakshman Juhla in Rishikesh on Sunday remaining untraced, a 11 - member State Disaster Response Force team has been pressed into service. It is assisting the local police to recover the body. However, till the time of the report being filed, the body is yet to be fished out. Informing this, lakshman Jhula police station in-charge Pradeep Rana said on Tuesday that efforts were on to recover the body.
He further said that four areas considered vulnerable had been identified along the Ganga river in lakshman Jhula area where warning sign- boards asking the people not to get into the river had been installed. “Besides, local police and water police are being deployed at danger zone areas to keep vigil. However, regrettably, some do not follow the warning and invite danger,” he added.
Notably, Kundan was a tourist guide who had come to Rishikesh along with a group of tourists from Aman Vihar in Delhi. After the tourists had checked in a hotel Kundan and his friend Karamveer Singh had gone to lakshman Jhula to bathe in the Ganga. While Kundan had been swimming his friend had been shooting a video while capturing his swimming skills. Suddenly, he had been swept away by strong current of the river.
Observers say that the job of the police should not end with merely putting up warning signboards and deployment of personnel. “What is needed more is that the police must enforce things strictly to save the youths from meeting their watery graves in the river,” says an observer.