Following the deaths of nine people in a cruise capsize in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, survivors have alleged serious lapses in safety measures and negligence by crew members. One survivor claimed that despite repeated warnings and pleas from passengers amid worsening weather conditions, the crew failed to steer the vessel to safety.
On Thursday evening, a leisure outing turned tragic at Bargi Dam when a state tourism department cruise carrying around 30 people capsized in the Narmada backwaters, leaving nine dead and several others missing. The incident occurred amid sudden strong winds, despite a prior weather alert.
Survivors Allege Safety Lapses
Survivors claimed that there was no life jacket available for the tourists. One of them said, “My son and wife are missing. I got hurt when the mirror on the cruise boat broke after hitting a wave. The staff did not provide us with life jackets; we arranged them and distributed them ourselves …”
Another survivor, Sangeeta Kori, a tourist from Delhi, recounted the tragic accident, stating that sudden strong winds caused water to enter the vessel, leading to panic and its eventual capsizing.
She said, “No one was made to wear life jackets beforehand. When water started entering, they hurriedly distributed them, which caused chaos and people started snatching them. Then the cruise capsized. There was a lot of negligence. The pilot of the boat wasn’t listening at all. People from the village were shouting and signaling him to bring the cruise to a safer side, but he kept going the same way, which caused it to overturn suddenly. My brother broke open the storeroom and quickly threw life jackets to people.”
Another survivor claimed that there were repeated warnings from the village to keep the boat at the side as weather was not good.
A survivor said, “We were all sitting properly when suddenly strong winds started blowing, and heavy waves began rising. People from the nearby village were also warning the cruise operator to move towards the side as the weather had turned bad…But before anything could be done, water entered and the cruise overturned.”
Is There Administration Lapse?
Meanwhile Tourism Minister Dharmendra Lodhi, said that the life jackets are provided on the cruise and there is a proper regulation for it. He also said that they will launch investigation and if found lapse in administration side then strict action will be taken against reponsible.
“Life jackets are provided on the cruise, and there is a clear provision requiring passengers to wear them. Now that allegations are being made, we will conduct an investigation to find out what led to this lapse. If any negligence is found, strict action will be taken against those responsible. This is truly a very tragic incident. Such incidents deeply move and shake us from within. It is important to ensure that incidents like this do not happen in the future. We will exercise full caution and set up an inquiry team to conduct a thorough investigation. If anyone is found negligent, the strictest possible action will be taken,” he said.
Was IMD Warning Ignored?
The tragedy has also raised questions about administrative oversight, as the cruise was reportedly allowed to operate despite a yellow alert issued by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) warning of strong winds in the region.
Critics point to this as a significant lapse in enforcing safety restrictions.
