By IANS,
Thiruvananthapuram : Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan Friday criticised the central government for not providing a military aircraft to transport the bodies of the victims of the Thekkady boat tragedy.
Achuthanandan’s response came in reply to a question put by reporters at a function.
Forty one tourists were killed when the double-decker fiberglass boat owned by the state-run Kerala Tourism Development Corporation capsized Wednesday evening in Thekkady lake at the Periyar wildlife sanctuary.
Speaking to reporters at the Kochi airport midnight Thursday, state Home and Tourism Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, who had come to supervise the loading of the bodies in a flight chartered by the state government from a private airline, said that the state government did request the defence ministry for an aircraft but it was not provided.
“Since that did not happen, we decided to charter an aircraft to transport the dead bodies. The entire cost will be borne by us,” he said.
“Sixteen bodies were sent in the chartered flight while four bodies to Delhi and two to Mumbai were sent today (Friday) morning. Meanwhile three bodies bound for Punjab have been embalmed in a hospital near Kottayam,” M. Beena, district collector of Ernakulam, told IANS.
Meanwhile, sources in the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) said they would raise the issue of the centre failing to sanction an aircraft in case the Congress-led opposition tries to imply the tragedy took place because of certain lapses in boating operations.
The sources said they would put Defence Minister A.K. Antony on the dock for not rising to the occasion to see that an aircraft was made available.
In the late 1990s, the then E.K. Nayanar-led Left government created a fuss and did not pay the dues of the military aircraft which had transported Antony from New Delhi to here in 1995 to take over as chief minister.