THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The faulty design of the ill-fated boat ‘Jalakanyaka’ and the overload at the time of its last journey in addition to the lapses of the inexperienced crew led to the Thekkady mishap which claimed 45 lives two years ago, according to the Justice E Mytheen Kunju Commission which probed into the tragedy.The commission has made 23 recommendations to prevent the recurrence of boat tragedies, including the formation of a Maritime Board in the state at the earliest.
The commission’s report which was submitted to Chief Minister Oommen Chandy here on Thursday, came down heavily on the top brass of Kerala Tourism Development Corporation and Tourism Directorate for their callous and indifferent approach leading to a messy situation related to the affairs in their departments.
Among those whom the commission found fault with are the then Chief Inspector of boats M Mathew, Tourism director Shivasankar, planning officer Unnikrishnan, KTDC Managing Director K G Mohanlal and mechanical engineer Manoj Mathew for serious administrative lapses and improper evaluation of the sunken vessel.
The commission also come down heavily on Thevan, the boat supervisor at Thekkady on the day of the mishap, boat driver Victor Samuel and laskar Aneesh, for their gross dereliction of duty leading to the overloading of the boat. The report was highly critical that the boat was put into operation without availing of the classification certificate of the final ballistic stability test. Moreover, extra load was placed on the vessel in the form of ornamental works. The recklessness of the boat driver while manoeuvering the boat accentuated to the loss of balance of the vessel and led to its eventual sinking on September 30, 2009
One of the notable aspects of the report is that the responsibility for the launch of the faulty boat had been fixed on officials of the Tourism Directorate and KTDC, in addition to the Inspector of Boats. The commission found that Prof Subramanian of the Chennai IIT, who designed the boat, could not be blamed since he was not consulted on the technical aspects in the course of building the boat or prior to its launch. Indian Register of Shipping (IRS) surveyor Sanjeev had been absolved of blame pointing out that the agency had only certified the hull of the vessel.
The name of Cheriyan Philip, the then KTDC chairman, had not found any mention in the report because he was not a signatory to any file related to the purchase of the boat.
“Had the final stability test been conducted before launching the boat, the tragedy could have been averted,” said Justice E Mytheen Kunju, after submitting of the report. The commission has filed the 232-page report about 11 months.
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