KAKINADA: Even as rescue workers were frantically searching for the six children who went missing after the boat carrying them capsized at Pasuvula Lanka of I Polavaram mandal, the families of the victims blamed the government for holding classes on second Saturday which happened to be a holiday.
“It was the second Saturday and the school should not have been opened. Had our children stayed at home, they would have been alive today. Now, our lives are shattered,’’ Sunkara Satyavathi, grandmother of one of the missing girl students, nine-year-old Sreeja wept inconsolably. Sreeja, a class V student had been living with Satyavathi while her parents worked as agricultural labourers in the neighbouring village.
The heartbroken woman, standing forlornly on the banks of river Godavari for the news of her granddaughter, told Express, “I was looking after Sreeja like my own daughter. The school should not have been opened yesterday. Sreeja would have been safe if she stayed at home.’’
Another villager said that the teachers should have declared a holiday taking into consideration the rising water levels in the river. “The school teachers at Pasuvullanka high school knew that the river was rising rapidly. Still, they decided to keep the school open so that the students could participate in the Vanam Manam programme,’’ the villager rued. For Polisetty Machar Rao, Saturday’s accident came like a lightning. Both his daughters -- Anusha, Class IX, and Suchitra, Class V -- were missing and he was still hoping for a miracle to see his children alive. Machar Rao, a farm worker, expressed his anger over the delay in construction of the bridge.
The body of a woman identified as Galla Nagamani, one of the seven who was feared drowned in the boat capsize near Pasuvula Lanka on Saturday, got washed ashore at Pushkar Ghat at Komaragiri on Sunday evening. Despite the increasing flood levels in Godavari river, search for the missing children continued till 6 pm and was suspended later due to poor visibility and rising flood.