2 women drowned, 3 girls missing as boat capsizes in Ganga

Bhagalpur, Feb 26 (PTI) Two women were drowned andthree girls went missing when a boat carrying them capsized inthe river Ganga near Tapua Diara in Bihar''s Bhagalpurdistrict today, an official said.

The victims were returning to their native villageTapua after collecting fodder from Diara by the boat whichsank, the sub-divisional officer (SDO) Sanjay Kumar said.

The bodies of two of the victims, identified as AnjuKumari (18) and Saraswati Devi (45), have been recovered,while three others, Siwani Kumari (8) Phekni Devi (10) andNeetu Kumari (8), were yet to be traced, he said.

A team of divers has rushed from Patna to searchfor the bodies.

Senior civil and police officials were camping on thespot to supervise rescue and relief operations, the SDO said.

Meanwhile, the district administration has granted anassistance of Rs 1500 each to the kin of two victims forcremation of the bodies and another Rs 10,000 each fromthe relief fund.

The affected families will be given Rs 1 lakh each ascash assistance from the Disaster Management fund of the stategovernment, Kumar said.

Local police officials had earlier said that sevenfarmers were drowned in the boat capsizing incident.