Despite several fatal boat accidents in Kerala over the last 100 years and three Commission of Inquiry reports recommending preventive measures, lack of government intervention resulted in the boating tragedy in Malappuram that claimed 22 lives, the opposition Congress and BJP contended on Monday.
According to survivors and those who avoided boarding the fateful boat, the tour boat operator's "last trip" gimmick which led to the vessel being packed beyond its capacity and not heeding to bystanders warnings of the boat tilting to one side before it took off, all contributed to the disaster.
The statements of the survivors, bystanders and local residents of the area reveal that the vessel was a fishing boat which was converted into a recreational vessel, it did not have a licence to offer boating services, it lacked sufficient safety equipment like life jackets, the same were not provided to passengers and it was filled beyond capacity, checking all the boxes of "don'ts" that the panels had outlined.
Poorly designed vessels, their shoddy maintenance, absence of navigational aids, overloading and negligent conduct of the crew were some of the reasons cited by the inquiry commissions, set up in 2002, 2007 and 2009 after various boating tragedies, for such accidents in the past several decades.
In 2002, after the Kumarakom boat tragedy that claimed 29 lives, the Justice K Narayana Kurup Commission of Inquiry (CoI) had found that poor condition of the boat, poor maintenance, overloading and negligent conduct of the crew were responsible for the accident. In 2007, after the Thattekkad boat accident which claimed lives of 14 students and three teachers -- who were part of a school picnic trip -- the Justice M M Pareed Pillay CoI had found that overloading and untimely hours of the ride were the reasons for the tragedy.
In 2009, the E Mytheenkunju CoI found that overloading, inexperienced crew and lack of stability of the boat were the causes for the Thekkady boating accident that claimed lives of 45 tourists when a double decker boat of Kerala Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC) capsized in Thekkady lake.
A 2013 National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) report also points out that the state government has not heeded any of the recommendations of these committees. The NHRC report titled 'Boat Accidents in Inland Waters of Kerala' came in the wake of a boating accident on January 26, 2013 which according to it "could have been avoided if the recommendations of the CoIs had been followed".
The CoI recommendations included evenly distributing passengers inside the boat, not overcrowding, use of properly designed boats, wearing of safety jackets, providing safety instructions to passengers and establishing rescue coordination centres in important tourism spots.