New Water Policy to monitor boat operations soon

Amaravati: Minister for Tourism Bhuma Akhila Priya said a new water policy would be put in place soon in the State and boat licences would be cancelled under the new policy if it is found that safety measures were not implemented.

The Minister held an emergency meeting with tourism department officials and boat operators at the Secretariat on Tuesday. She said the government was contemplating to bring a new water policy to put in place an efficient monitoring system on operating tourism boats and it was expected to prevent boat mishaps in rivers.

The Minister made it clear that the tourism boat operators must take permission from the tourism department to hold commercial operations and they would not be allowed to operate boats based on permission given by irrigation department.

She said the tourism department boats got the RSS certification and safety measures were being implemented strictly. “I directed officials to conduct checks on private boats to ascertain whether or not they were given permission from tourism department. We do not think that all the private boats are illegal as some of them were given permissions by the irrigation department,” she said.

She further said that so far only six boating companies in the State signed agreements with the tourism department. The remaining companies should also secure permission from the tourism department. “We directed the officials to seize the boats if the companies do no come forward to enter into an MoU with the tourism department,” the Minister said.

Akhila Priya said that contract employee Gadela Sreenu, who was involved in the boat accident at Pavitrasangamam Ghat on Sunday, was suspended and criminal action would be taken against him. “We will not spare anyone responsible for the boat capsizing incident at Pavitrasangamam. Action will be taken based on enquiry commission report,” she said.

The Minister said district-level safety committees would be constituted in which revenue divisional officers (RDOs) and Deputy Superintendents of Police (DSP) would be appointed as members. The government would provide safety jackets on subsidy to boating agencies.