Gujarat HC pulls up Vadodara Municipal Corporation over Harni boat tragedy

The Gujarat High Court on Monday pulled up the Vadodara Municipal Corporation VMC over the Harni boat tragedy in which 12 children and two teachers lost their lives and called for a policy for the management of water bodies and to fix accountability to officials in case of such incidentsA boat carrying students and teachers out on a picnic capsized in Harni Lake in Vadodara on January 18 killing 12 students and two teachers while 18 students and two teachers were rescuedHearing a suo motu PIL on the incident the division bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Aniruddha P Mayee observed that unless and until such tragedy occurs people live in denial mode thinking this will never happenYou VMC may have taken a hundred corrective measures after the incident but that is not enough We want to know how you were operating prior to the incident And whether anybody is accountable in the corporation or not Or only the contractor is to be slashed the court asked when the civic bodys lawyer told the court about measures taken after the incidentThe court was informed that the civic body had issued instructions to the private contractor managing the lake on two accounts before the tragedyTo this the court sought to know why the contractor was allowed to operate even after failing to follow instructionsThis is only an eyewash on the corporations part We will be calling the affidavit of the corporation also The municipal commissioner is answerable for that as this is within the jurisdiction of the VMC the court made an oral observationJustice Agarwal said that using waterbodies for amusement purposes by the civic bodies is not wrong but there has to be some instructions accountability and supervision if they are given to private persons for the purposeThe VMC has registered an FIR in the case accusing 19 persons including people associated with private firm Kotia Projects its subcontractor and the boat operators of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and attempt to commit culpable homicide under provisions of the Indian Penal CodeChief Justice Agarwal also raised concern over the status of other water bodies in the state that are being used for amusement purposes and noted that she recently took a boat ride twice in Nal Sarovar bird sanctuary a wetland near Sanand in Ahmedabad without being provided with a life jacketI have gone there twice this season After this Vadodara incident I realised we went without life jackets They took the Chief Justice also without a life jacket I could have drowned in the lake she observedWhat I am saying is that unless and until this kind of incident occurs everybody feels that this will never happen This is how we always live in denial mode she observedThe court called for a government policy applicable to all water bodies in the state that are being used for amusement purposesIf you are framing a policy accountability is the first step A contractor is a contractor but accountability is of the officer of the corporation it saidAdvocate General Kamal Trivedi said the government has instructed local authorities about what they need to do after the Vadodara tragedy and they have been asked to provide information regarding water bodiesIn the meantime all amusement activities at water bodies have been stopped he saidThe court wanted to know whether it was also applicable to lakes in the forest areas like Nal Sarovar Lake where people are ferried in boats without a life jacketThough the depth is not much that does not matter Even a swimmer can die in shallow water There is a lot of weed inside a lake the Chief Justice saidThe court directed the government to prepare a chart of water bodies in the state and who is managing themSo far as individual areas are concerned like the areas within the jurisdiction of the corporation and forest department iquest all these areas are to be individually tapped They are supposed to answer to the court Then only we will be able to call upon the report of everyone the court observedIt proposed to expand the scope of the suo motu PIL to cover water bodies in the entire state so that the government could come out with a comprehensive plan for their management so that people can have fun with safety measures in placeThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever