The recent drowning of two youths in Rishikesh has again raised questions over the safety arrangements made for the visitors by police and local administration along the stretch of Ganga in Haridwar and Rishikesh. With such unfortunate death occurring at regular intervals, the imperative of putting up warning signboards at the vulnerable places along the stretches of the river besides some other steps is being felt all the more. Observers say that the administration is not quick enough to understand the gravity of things and it is not thus rising up to the occasion with the measures warranted by the procession of deaths of the tourists.
Two youths from Bijnor district of Uttar Pradesh Zaid and Salman who had gone on Sunday for a swim in Ganga near the Neem Beach had been swept away in the current of the river while the third youth Zulfikar had been rescued by the locals. All three of them worked at a hotel based in Rishikesh.
This is just another incident in the steady incidences of such deaths in Haridwar and Rishikesh. In the first week of April, a 21- year- old B Tech student of Dehradun-based Graphic Era University had met his watery grave at Shivpuri in Rishikesh when he along with his friends had been celebrating birthday of one of them. later, a nurse from Delhi had slipped and fallen in the river near lakshman Jhula and drowned. These incidents were preceded by many others in the past few years, something which should have put the administration/police in the alert mode which unfortunately, however, has not happened.
Quizzed over the alleged laidback attitude of administration/police despite the grimness of things, SHO Muni Ki Reti Manish Upadhyay said that the cops could hardly be expected to stand guard round the clock along the entire stretch of Ganga. “On sensitive locations, however, we have Jal Police personnel and divers. However, their role is limited as the persons who accidentally are caught in the current can hardly survive unless they are rescued by those present there,” he added.
But the locals who always leap into the river risking their own lives to save those found drowning are not convinced of the police logic. They say that adequate number of warning signboards has not been put up at the most precarious places along the stretch of the river. “Such boards must be put up as those who come from outside cannot be expected to be aware of the places which can prove death traps for them if they are adventurous enough to take a swim,” said Sushil Kumar Budakoti who runs a tea stall near Shivpuri in Rishikesh, deemed to be one of the most dangerous spots where the current of the river is strong enough to sweep one into the womb of death within minutes.