The rules are dime a
dozen if they were implemented in the right way, dozens of lives would still
be alive to enjoy the worldly life.
As you have read earlier, the
specification on the load a boat can carry and the timing of their cruising
was ignored and obviously that is what led to the disaster. A fitness
certificate is awarded only to those boats which abide all the safety
guidelines such as the boat should carry safety accessories such as life
boy, life jacket’ fire fighting equipments.
The maximum number of
passengers that the boats carry at a time should not exceed the number
specified in the certificate and all the staff including the driver must
have a valid license. All these guidelines look promising but what actually
happens is that the boat owners temporarily hire the equipment and licensed
staff and once they lay their hands on the certificate all these hired items
are replaced by unsafe accessories and staff members change.
The rule is that the fitness
certificate must be renewed every six months and the canal license every one
year is also widely ignored. A widely seen trend is to launch two or three
boats in the same name and then own a fitness certificate for one of these
boats which is latter used to run all the other boats of the same name.
Next :
Thattekad tragedy has some parallels