TIL Desk/National/New Delhi/ Eleven people drowned when two boats carrying them capsized during Ganesh idol immersion in Lower Lake of Bhopal, a senior police official said on Friday. The incident took place on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday in Khatlapura on the banks of the Lower Lake. Eleven people died in the incident while six were rescued, Bhopal Collector Tarun Kumar Pithode said.
A magisterial probe has been ordered into the incident, Pithode said. A total of 17 people were going on two separate boats for the immersion of the Ganesh idol at Khatlapura ghat when the incident took place at around 4.30 am, the collector said. Initially, the first boat tilted and when the people on the other one saw it, they tried to save it, but to no avail. In the process, the other boat also tilted sideways and both capsized, an official said.
An ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh, including an immediate relief of Rs 50,000, was announced by the collector for the kin of the deceased. Meanwhile in Maharashtra at least 17 persons drowned in separate incidents during immersion of Ganesh idols across Maharashtra, police said on Friday. Immersions, which began on Anant Chaturdashi on Thursday, continued into Friday morning in several parts of Mumbai, Pune and Sangli, officials said.
