At least eight people are feared dead after a boat, carrying ten people, capsized in Panchkhero dam under Markacho police station in Koderma District on Sunday morning. The site of occurrence is located near the Giridih – Koderma border.
The deceased are said to be the residents of Khetko village in the Dhanwar police station area of Giridih district.
According to the information gathered from different sources, it was at around 11 am when almost ten people, including women and children, had gone to Markacho based Panchkhero dam for boating. Consequently, they all boarded a wooden boat and started moving around. As soon as the boat reached near the center of the dam, the boat sank into the water. While two, out of all, somehow managed to escape from the watery grave, remaining drowned in the reservoir.
Those drowned into the reservoir include - Sitaram Yadav (42), Sejal Kumari (14), D/O - Sitaram Yadav, Rajkumar Yadav (10), S/O - Sitaram Yadav, Samiksha Shree (3), D/O - Sitaram Yadav, Pradeep Singh (43), S/O - Abhimanyu Singh, Shivam Kumar (8), S/O - Pradeep Singh, Bittu Kumari (6), D/O - Pradeep Singh, Rahul Kumar Singh (15), S/O - Praful Singh, Amit Kumar Singh (12), S/O - Praful Singh.
All are said to be residents of the Khetko village under Dhanwar police station of Giridih district.
Soon after the information regarding the incident came into light, hundreds of villagers accumulated at the site of occurrence and exerted efforts to rescue the victims. Consequently, a joint rescue operation, of Giridih and Koderma district administrations, has been launched to recover the bodies.
The senior district authorities, including SPs of Giridih and Koderma Districts, could not be contacted. The Dhanwar OC, Nagendra Kumar, confirmed the entire incident and said, “Nothing much can be ascertained in this regard as the rescue team is yet to recover any dead bodies from the reservoir. Our massive rescue operation is still going on”.
The NDRF team has also been pressed to rescue the dead bodies. The rescue operation is still going on, as soon as it is completed, and the operation is still on.
Taking serious note of the incident, the Koderma BJP MP, Smt Annpurna Devi spoke to the deputy commissioner of both the districts and took stock of the situation.