The bodies of Ch Phanindra (13) and Nalluri Yesupadam (12) who met a watery grave along with Ch Ratnababu (14), N Rakesh (15), D Surya (12) and Nalluri Raviteja (14) when they went for a swim in the Krishna river near Pedapulipaka in Penamaluru mandal on Friday, were retrieved from the river by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) on Saturday morning.
The bodies which were found about 1 km downstream of the river, were shifted to the new government general hospital for postmortem.
Though the bodies of Surya, Ratnababu, Raviteja and Rakesh were retrieved from the river within two hours after the fateful incident, their family members were forced to wait at the mortuary of the government hospital till Saturday afternoon to get the bodies.
Penamaluru CI Dharmendra who oversaw the search operation, said the bodies of all the six boys were handed over to their family members after the conduct of postmortem.
“Surya’s father who is working as a mason at Haridwar, is on his way to Vijayawada.
“We are waiting for him to perform the last rites of the boy,” said his uncle Devisetti Surya at the mortuary.
Meanwhile, Telugu Desam and YSRC activists staged a dharna at the new government hospital demanding payment of an ex gratia to the kin of the six boys as they hailed from poor families. TDP district president Devineni Uma Maheswara Rao led the dharna.
On hearing the drowning of six boys in the river, TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu announced a financial aid of Rs 50,000 each to the kin of the victims.
The aid will be handed over to the bereaved families by the TDP president on August 14.
Minister for secondary education Kolusu Parthasarathi and other Congress leaders announced an aid of Rs 15,000 each to the victims’ families. Vijayawada RDO S Venkat Rao said a report on drowning of the six boys in the river would be sent to the government.
The RDO said he would see that the bereaved families get some financial assistance from the government.