Bargi Dam Tragedy: Negligence Visible, Authorities Keep Mum

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The deaths at the Bargi Dam in Jabalpur after a cruise keeled over in it have shocked the state. Though the government is calling it a tragedy, it was actually a culpable homicide.

The MP tourism department was operating the cruise, but neither the administration nor the department paid any attention to following safety measures.

The videos of the passengers, gradually becoming public, indicate that they did not wear life jackets. The government must think about it.

The cruise operators should have been acquainted with the predictions of the weather office. The tragedy also indicates that those who operate the cruise never sift through the weather forecast.

The most important question is what happened to the disaster management? A series of such tragedies manifest the government's lack of interest in disaster management.

If the local residents had not swung into action, NDRF and SDRF jawans and divers from Agra had not come, it would not have been possible to bring several people back from the jaws of death.

The cruise sank but left a trail of the yarns of the administration's negligence. So, nobody is taking the responsibility for what happened.

The government suspended a few officers after the tragedy and set up enquiries against some. The team will gather evidence about the role of those officers in the tragedy.

It was, in fact, the third big tragedy in a few months. Before the Bargi dam tragedy, 25 children died after consuming cough syrup in Chhindwara. Similarly, contaminated water led to the death of over 25 people in Indore. Every tragedy brought to light the failure of the system.

As inquiry reports take time to go public, they become a mere formality. The government removes IAS officers after each incident but gives them plum postings afterwards.

In the same way, the government revokes the suspension of an officer responsible for such tragedies. The politicians have kept away from taking responsibility for any such incident.

They enjoy all facilities on public money but never take responsibility for anything. The inquiry into the cruise tragedy will also go into the abyss of time.