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Tearful adieu to students

Staff Reporter

Footbridge to be built across Chaliyar at Moorkanad

Homage: Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and Education Minister M.A. Baby paying homage to V. Shihabuddeen, one of the victims of the Areekode boat tragedy, at his house on Thursday.

Kozhikode: The bodies of eight students who drowned in a boat accident on the Chaliyar at Moorkanad in Areekode, Malappuram, were buried on Thursday.

The students of Sub-us-Salam Higher Secondary School, Moorkanad, and the people of Areekode bid a tearful farewell to the students during the funeral, which were staggered along different times of the day.

Earlier, it was decided not to conduct post-mortem examination or keep the bodies in public for the people to pay homage.

The bodies were released to the families of the children on Wednesday night itself. A holiday was declared for all schools in Malappuram district on Thursday and a dawn-to-dusk hartal was observed at Areekode as a mark of respect to the departed students.

Revenue Minister K.P. Rajendran said a footbridge would be built across the Chaliyar at Moorkanad on a war footing.

He said he had directed all district administrations to study river crossings to prevent such accidents in future. He said the Cabinet would meet soon to decide on the compensation to be given to the families of the students.

Meanwhile, boatman of the capsized boat Usman complained that a few boys had tugged at the rope tied between the boat and the bank to move the boat faster and this had caused the accident.

The Malappuram RDO began investigation into the accident and the district administration filed a report to the Chief Minister in the afternoon.

Union Ministers E. Ahamed and Mullappally Ramachandran; Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan; Education Minister M.A. Baby; Revenue Minister K.P. Rajendran; Devaswom Minister Kadannapally Ramachandran; Health Minister P.K. Sreemathy; Agriculture Minister Mullakkara Ratnakaran; E.T. Mohammed Basheer, M.K. Raghavan, M.I. Shanavas, MPs; P.V. Abdul Wahab, MP; and Malappuram Collector M.C. Mohandas visited the bereaved families and consoled them.

Appeal

Special Correspondent writes: Meanwhile, operators of tourist boats in the northern districts of the State appealed to the State government to subsidise life jackets and other safety equipment to improve safety standards in view of the Thekkady boat tragedy which claimed the lives of 45 tourists.

At a press conference on Thursday, V.M. Mohanan, general secretary of the Malabar Region Tourist Boat Owners’ Association, appealed to the government to provide free insurance cover for the tourist boats and the tourists. To make the boat services viable, kerosene, on which these vessels run, should be subsidised. N.K. Mohammed, president of the association, and Karuniyan Najeeb, treasurer, stressed the need to improve facilities for tourist boat owners in north Kerala. They sought an examination centre for those trying to get the boat drivers’ licence.

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