'Inland Water Transport Director must be from marine-engineering background'

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The post of Director in the IWT (Inland Water Transport) Department must be a professional from the background of marine technology engineering instead of a civil services official. This demand was made by the general secretary of the employees union of IWT, Ambika Charan Baishya on Wednesday.

The leader of 'Sadou Assam Abhyantarin Jala Paribahan Shramik Sangha' further demanded that the authorities concerned must fulfil their other demands as well for the safety of the passengers of vessels, ferries and country boats.

Baishya said, "No untrained persons should be allowed to ply such river vessels. No more permission should be granted to persons for running such country boats.

"The IWT must implement all the recommendations of the Jitesh Khosla Commission submitted to the government way back in 2015. The Commission was set up after the 2014 boat mishap in Dhubri.

The Government should have learnt from the earlier two boat tragedies — at Medartaree in Dhubri District in 2014 and at Madhyam Khanda in North Guwahati in 2018.

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