Two separate teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) launched rescue operations in Barakar River at Jamtara this morning at around 6.30 am to search for the missing persons who fell into the river after a boat sailing between Dhanbad to Barakar capsized last night due to bad weather.

However, no dead bodies have been recovered till the time of reporting. The local residents of Jamtara led by family members of the deceased who have been congregating at Shayampore Birgaon bank of Jamtara since last night, however, shouted slogans against the district administration and police accusing them of slow pace in rescue work.

The protesters charged that the NDRF team not only reached around five hours after the incident last night but also launched the rescue work only this morning around 13 hours after the mishap.

Faiz Aq Ahmad Mumtaz, Jamtara Deputy Commissioner, while talking to The Telegraph Online however defended the rescue work and said, “Though, the NDRF team carried out inspection of the site last night, rescue operation began this morining because of inclement weather."

In a related development, Irfan Ansari, Jamtara MLA tokk up the matter with chief minister, Hemant Soren demanding compensation for the family members of each of the deceased persons.

Ansari also raised the issue of pending work of the 1433 metre Barbendia Bridge connecting Nirsa in Dhanbad to Jamtara which could have decreased the existing distance between Dhanbad and Jamtara from 65 km to 16 km making journey between these two districts much more convenient.

Locals watch rescue work on the Barbendia bridge at Nirsa Shabbir Hussain

Talking to The Telegraph Online from Ranchi over phone, Ansari said, “I have requested the chief minister to provide Rs 4 lakh compensation to family members of the each of deceased persons."

Former Nirsa MLA, Arup Chatterjee who also reached the river bank however also raised the issue of pending construction of Barbendia bridge and said that issue is lying pending only for lack deciding the agency which has to carry out the construction.

Notably, the bridge construction was suspended on August 20, 2009 after two pillars of under construction Bridge collapsed amidst heavy rains.

The government later decided to construct a new bridge by making a fresh estimate but the construction work is yet to begin since there is no clarity as to whether the Rural Engineering Organization or Road Construction department will construct the bridge.