Two more bodies traced, search is on

Kakinada: The search operations in River Godavari for the third day on Monday for those went missing on Saturday’s boat capsize resulted in tracing of two bodies of schoolchildren. One of them has been identified as Tirukoti Priya (14), a Class 8 student.  

The other is yet to be identified. With this, the number of those traced has reached to three,  with the body of one middle-aged woman Galla Nagamani being found at Komaragiri village on Sunday. Her body was handed over to  kin after post-mortem was conducted.

“The search operations by all the 29 teams are continuing and we are e hopeful of tracing the remaining four, said Deputy Chief Minister and home minister N Chinarajappa on Monday evening. 

Meanwhile, AP Mahila Commission chairperson Nananpaneni Rajakumari visited the families of victims  and expressed her condolences. She announced ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh to the families of all the deceased.  

The drivers of the  boat Saladi Venkateswara  Rao and his son Ramoji have been absconding for the last three days after the  mishap. The entire team of district officials headed by district collector  Karitikeya Mishra, SP Vishal Gunni, joint collector A Mallikarjuna are camping at Yanam  and supervising the search operations.