The Hindu : Front Page : Illegal boats to be confiscated

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 25, 2007
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Illegal boats to be confiscated

Special Correspondent

Minister announces emergency steps to ensure passenger safety

Thiruvananthapuram: Water Resources Minister N.K. Premachandran on Saturday announced emergency steps to ensure safety of boats operating services in waterbodies in the State, including confiscation of craft that did not have licence and fitness certificates and reform of the licensing system.

The Minister also announced long-term measures, which included a comprehensive and integrated legislation that would replace pre-Independence laws now in force. The measures have been announced in the light of the Thattekkad boat tragedy and on the basis of the Irrigation Chief Engineer's preliminary report on the accident.

The Minister said a valid mechanism would be established to inspect whether the regulations were being observed by coordinating the functioning of various departments such as the Police, Revenue and Tourism. The emergency steps were applicable to the District Tourism Promotion Councils as well. All boats were required to display particulars with regard to licence and fitness certificates, the permitted carrying capacity and manufacturing details. He said that at present, just one official in the rank of Chief Inspector of Boats was the issuing authority for fitness certificates for the entire State. This was being replaced by a system that would fix the jurisdiction of operations.

New system

As per this, the Irrigation Superintending Engineer would function as Chief Inspector of Boats. The Malabar, Kochi and Travancore regions would have an executive engineer in charge, functioning as inspector of boats, and an assistant executive engineer functioning as assistant inspector of boats.

The Minister said that to operate services in reservoirs, barrages and canals, operators were required to sign an agreement on a Rs.50 stamp paper in addition to securing the permits from the respective executive engineers. Firm action would be taken against officials who failed to ensure compliance with this stipulation. He urged all boat operators to learn a lesson from the boat tragedy and ensure compliance with the Government's decisions.

In reply to a question, he said the regulations were applicable to houseboats as well. With regard to long-term measures, the Minister said the integrated legislation would be brought in at the earliest.

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