Punjab Deputy Chief Minister, Sukhbir Singh Badal on Monday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to immediately send a team to US to bring justice to the victims of Panama boat tragedy and expose the human-trafficking racket.
Badal had a telephonic talk with Swaraj who assured that the Government would reach out to the victims immediately. He said that Punjab Government is also sending senior officials from State to US to trace out the survivors of the tragedy.
Reports had it that as many as 25 youths from Punjab were feared dead as the boat in which they were travelling capsized near Panama. Families claimed that the youths paid `10-25 lakh each to travel agents to seek immigration to the US.
The youths were reportedly headed to the US illegally in a boat when the incident occurred. The incident took place on January 10 and the parents of the youths got to know about it on January 12-13. The Deputy CM said that the incident took place at sea between the Colombian port city of Turbo and neighbouring South American country Panama.
The Deputy CM has directed the Director General of Police and SSP Kapurthala to take action against travel agents involved in human trafficking. Kapurthala Police has registered a case under Sections 420 (cheating) and 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and various sections of the Immigration Act against the travel agents. The travel agents would be interrogated to know how many youths were on the boat.
Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal expressed profound grief and sorrow over the tragic incident of capsized boat carrying youths from Punjab to United States near Panama.
Sharing heartfelt condolences with the members of bereaved families back home in Punjab, Badal said that the State Government was at the beck and call of these distressed families in this hour of crisis.
“I am deeply anguished to learn about this ill-fated boat tragedy, which claimed the lives of our sons of soil and pray to Almighty for giving courage and solace to the bereaved families to bear this inconsolable loss,” he said in his statement.
A spokesperson of the Chief Minister’s Office said Badal has asked the State Chief Secretary to provide the latest information with regard to this tragic incident to their family members or relations. On the directions of Badal, the Chief Secretary has already set up a 24X7 Control Room at Punjab Civil Secretariat, Chandigarh with landline nos. 0172-2740397, 2740859 and fax no.2740936 to keep the families of victims updated about the latest information available with them.
Any member or relative of the victims of this unfortunate boat tragedy could seek information from the concerned official on duty round the clock by contacting him on the above mentioned telephone numbers in the Control Room.
The Chief Minister also said that he was in constant touch with the Ministry of External Affairs, GoI and also directed the Chief Secretary to keep a close tab over the situation through maintaining liaison with the top brass of the Ministry of External Affairs so as to keep him updated on this count from time to time.
One of the ‘survivors’, Sonu, who hails from Bhogpur area near Jalandhar, shared information on the accident with family members of two of the youths — Gurjit Singh and Gurvinder Singh — who are from villages in Kapurthala district, police said.
Police said the families of the victims have filed a complaint following which investigation was launched against a travel agent who collected lakhs of rupees from each youth to send them abroad.
Kapurthala district police chief Rajinder Singh said the travel agent, Kulwinder Singh, has been booked and police teams were trying to trace him.