VIJAYAWADA: Tourism Minister Bhuma Akhila Priya on Wednesday suspended two senior officials and sacked five contract employees of the Andhra Pradesh Tourism department for dereliction of duty and ‘encouraging’ the River Boating and Adventures Partners Pvt Ltd, the company whose boat capsized at the Pavitra Sangamam killing 22 passengers.
Addressing a press conference at the Interim Government Complex (IGC), Akhila Priya clarified that the move was departmental action and it would be followed up by the police. “Criminal cases could be slapped against them if evidence to their culpability emerges in the police probe,” she explained. To a query, she replied that they hadn’t yet found evidence of the erring officials’ financial involvement in River Boating and Adventures Partners Pvt Ltd. The two senior officials, who are suspended, are assistant general manager G Ramakrishna and deputy manager VVS Gangaraju. Among those sacked are P Veera Reddy (swimmer), assistant manager Kolli Sridhar, boat drivers P Narasimha Rao, K Chamcham Raju and A Srinivasa Rao.
The government cracked the whip after reports surfaced in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy that Gangaraju allegedly joined hands with Veera Reddy, Kolli Sridhar and prime accused Gedala Srinivasa Rao, a boat driver of the APTDC, to set up the private company.
Rao, one of the partners in the company, has since been arrested. Kolli Sridhar, who had earlier worked as manager at Bhavani Island, was transferred to Kakinada a few months ago following graft allegations.
Similarly, Rao was transferred to Tada. In a related development, the police presented all the company’s partners against whom a case under Section 304-II (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) before the media.
Commissioner of police Gautam Sawang told reporters that besides Gedala Srinivasa Rao, Sesham Moda Kondala Rao, Neelam Seshagiri Rao, Vinjamuri Vijaya Saradhi, and Chitti, Srinivasa Rao’s wife Gedala Lakshmi and boat crew member Bhairava Swamy were also arrested. Boat driver Suribabu and his assistant Ramarao are still at large. The licence holder of the firm had put the blame on his partners.