Patna boat tragedy: Nitish Kumar removes Patna DM Sanjay Agarwal from 3-member probe team

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, who had constituted a three-member probe committee headed by Pratyay Amrit, principal secretary, disaster management department to probe the tragic incident of boat capsizing on Saturday, has now removed Sanjay Agarwal, Patna district magistrate (DM) from the team.

The probe team now comprises only Pratyay Amrit and Shalin, Patna DIG being its member.

This sudden move by Nitish to remove Patna DM from the probe team comes after Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav intervened asserting how a government officer, who is under scanner for the incident, be entrusted the responsibility of probing the same, sources said.

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It may be noted that 25 people have lost their lives in the boat capsize incident and the role of the Patna administration is under scanner for not making enough arrangement for the kite festival across the Ganga in the absence of which, disaster of such magnitude has happened.

Initially, what appears is that the there was very minimum police deployment at the kite festival because of which almost 50 people, while returning back to Gandhi ghat, boarded a single boat which capsized few metres away from the bank. Also, the local administration had failed to deploy adequate number of boats for ferrying people from Gandhi ghat to the kite festival and back to Gandhi ghat.

In view of the above lapses on the part of Patna administration, the Patna DM's role is under scanner and Lalu raised objection on him being part of the probe team.

Nitish, who held a high level meeting in the boat capsize incident, had asked Pratyay Amrit to complete the probe as soon as possible and submit a detailed report to the Bihar government for further action on the guilty.

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