Balugaon: The bodies of all the six persons missing in a boat capsize incident in Chilika Lake Saturday evening were recovered by Sunday morning.
Two of the deceased were Pramodini, wife of Rabindra Das and her daughter Sradhanjali Das (8) of Dimisar village in Nayagarh district. The two had gone to the Kalijai temple along with other family members.
There were 16 tourists in the boat, returning from a visit of the temple set on a patch of land inside the lake. They were from Nayagarh, Ranpur and Bhuabneswar areas. At about 5.30pm, strong winds and thundershowers lashed the lake and hit the vessel, leading to its capsize.
Chief fire force officer Sukant Sethi said the two bodies were fished out Saturday evening while four were recovered Sunday. 50 fire force personnel, a 40-member ODRAF team, six power boats, personnel of Indian Navy, 16 divers and local fishermen were engaged in the search operation.
Ten rescued tourists were first taken to the Balugaon government hospital and later shifted to Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar as their condition deteriorated.
Expressing grief and sympathy over the loss of lives, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Sunday announced an ex-gratia of Rs 4lakh each to the kin of the deceased. He has also ordered officials to provide free medical treatment to the injured.
PNN