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Journalism of Courage
AHMEDABAD, Oct 3: Hundreds of people enjoy boating in the inviting waters of the Kankaria Lake, especially with the charges being reasonable and boats easy to come by. Few, however, know that the boats being used in the lake do not have the mandatory certification regarding their fitness.
And that is not all. The civic body has not taken care to ensure whether the boatmen possess the requisite skills of rescue operations in case of an emergency. In fact, the detailed contract agreement doesn8217;t mention this aspect at all. The contract only says that safety of passengers and crew is the responsibility of the contractor.
Vajubhai Manilal Thakkar was given a five-year boating contract in April last year on certain conditions and annual payment of Rs 4.51 lakh to the civic body. Under the contract, responsibility of passengers8217; safety, boatmen and boats is with the contractor.
One of the conditions mentions that the boats used by the contractor should be fit to ferry passengers and a certificate to this effect should be obtained every three months from the city deputy engineers at the central workshop of the corporation. However, no such certificate has been issued to the contractor by the officials concerned at the workshop. Thakkar is said to have been told by workshop officials that it is not their job to certify boats.
In the absence of a workshop certificate regarding fitness of the boats, the contractor is said to have approached the city fire brigade to issue one, but his application is pending for more than a year. A fire official said his organisation was not involved in such issues, so the question of entertaining such applications did not arise.
When contacted, contractor Vajubhai Thakkar said he had run from pillar to post for the requisite certificates for the boats as well as boatmen, but every department did precious little besides passing the buck. The AMC8217;s concern for passenger safety is evident from the terms of the contract. The terms do not require adherence to basic safety norms by the contractor. The contractor is only required to procure a licence under the Minor Ports Act.
Moreover, the contract does not require the boatmen to have any special abilities such as swimming in dead waters. Even if a boatman has passed a test in the safe waters of a swimming pool, it should not qualify for boating in Kankaria lake, a corporation official said.
Whether any certificate of fitness was issued by the swimming pool division of the corporation or not is not clear because swimming pools superintendent Y V Bhil said he had not issued any such certificate.
Thakkar says he has employed five boatmen and he has 8220;full confidence8221; in their ability. But he admits they are not certified by the corporation despite repeated requests. The other boatmen are part-timers and they are called when required. In the absence of any certification with regard to fitness of boatmen or boats, there should be life belts and life jackets equal to the number of passengers in a boat and more than one boatman to a boat. But the conditions do not mention this basic safety requirement, with the result that every paddle boat has just one life jacket and two life belts. The lake is 11 feet deep on the shore and 20 feet deep in the middle.
Thakkar is also irked at the garbage being thrown into the lake, which, he says, gets stuck into the boat propellers causing them to stop midway. 8220;But there is no agency to stop all this8230;they have even cut my water connection which is causing great hardship to the crew as well as passengers,8221; he lamented.
On being asked who is responsible for these lapses in the contract, Standing Committee chairman Dharmendra Shah said he was not aware of follow up action in this case as the contract has been cleared one and half years ago. 8220;I am sure our officials have not permitted any irregularity, but I will order a probe,8221; he said.
