Three officials of the Inland Water Transport (IWT) department were suspended on Thursday under orders from Assam transport minister, Chandra Mohan Patowary. The suspensions were in connection to the case where a passenger jumped into the Brahmaputra River and has since remained untraceable.
In a press release numbered 78, IWT, the transport ministry informed of the suspensions. The release read, "In connection to the travelling of passengers in RPL Digaru vessel from Neamati ghat to Kamalabari ghat today, manual tickets were issued to few passengers without maintaining records/details due to the server downtime of the e-ticketing server. Later on, one such passenger jumped into the Brahmaputra River and has remained untraceable".
It added, "In this regard, as per the direction of Transport Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary, Transport Department has suspended Ashim Kumar Baruah, Junior Engineer, IWT Jorhat Sub-Division with immediate effect. Alok Gogoi and Bitupon Boruah both Section Assistants have also been placed under suspension for not maintaining details of passengers travelling".
The official release further said, "Vivekananda Phookan, Chairperson of the Assam Inland Water Transport Regulatory Authority has been directed to carry out an inquiry to ascertain facts and circumstances leading to the incident and related issues and submit report on the same within 15 days".
Notably, a man had jumped into the Brahmaputra River on Thursday morning while travelling from Nimatighat to Majuli on the ferry named RPL Digaru. Search operations are still underway for the man who has remained untraceable.