PASSENGER launch accident in our inland waterways is becoming a regular phenomenon in recent years, especially during the festival time. The latest tragedy of the launch capsize in the Padma on Monday has added another fatal event and more dead bodies in the long list of accidents in our waterways. After every accident, the government shows off some rescue operations, though delayed and inefficient, forms committees, asks recommendations from experts and finally, after a few weeks, goes into hibernation waking up again after another accident. One wonders how many corpses will be required to make the government responsive to people’s demand for a safe waterway.
The latest mishap occurred on Monday when MV Pinack-6 with around 300 passengers on board sank in the mighty Padma, near Louhajang upazila of Munshiganj, as the overcrowded launch capsized due to the strong waves. The vessel, ratified for only 85 passengers, was heading towards Munshiganj’s Mawa from Madaripur’s Kewrakandi. Unlike other accidents, the government explicitly exposed its inefficiency and inability to detect the sunken vessel but formed two probe committees. The government engaged four salvage vessels, including Nirbhik, and Rustom, with a sonar boat-side scanner but failed to make any progress in retrieving the vessel after 35 hours of the awful accident.
In the last 20 years, around 389 incidents of launch capsize were recorded while the number is 658 in privately estimated accounts, that killed more than 5000 people and left at least 1500 people missing. The government formed as many as about 200 investigation committees, of which only three have submitted their reports. A safe passenger vessel featured by design, air tight compartments, fitness level to carry passengers, loading capacity, regular fitness check-ups, trained crew, equipped with modern machinery to measure weather, are imperative. The Department of Shipping (DoS) is responsible for inland water safety and the approval of designs and plans of inland ships, but in reality, the department is found active only after any launch capsize, a man-made disaster. Moreover, the private vessel owners, in order to avoid the design fee and the supervision fee, put their own water crafts as well as the lives of thousands of innocent passengers at risk.
The overloading of passenger vessels is a regular feature, particularly during festival times, like the Pinack-6. Overloading in passengers’ vessels is prohibited but the owners of launches somehow manage the nod to operate by bribing a section of BIWTA officials. Due to the absence of a prior ticketing system the actual number of passengers on board is unknown, which allows overloading to occur more easily.
The officials are paid but they do not do their duties. The Minister in charge of the Ministry cannot evade blame for the killing of more than one hundred passengers travelling in the launch not only illegally overloaded, it was not fit for taking the journey. The sinking of the launch was not an accident. The passengers were unlawfully killed.
