Frequent drowning deaths at various ghats in the state capital have failed to shake the district administration out of its slumber, the latest victims being two girls who drowned at Dulli Ghat on Wednesday.

The administration is yet to draw up a concrete plan to save precious lives and its job seems only confined to fishing out victims’ bodies. The administration has, however, started preparing for monsoon at present and claims that 138 trained divers would be deployed round-the-clock at 60 dangerous ghats from Patna to Mokama from June 15 to September 15 for the public.

Additional district magistrate (disaster management) Anirudh Kumar told The Telegraph that 32 experts had been engaged to train 106 people, many of them associated with non-government organisations, who would be given basic equipment and patrol all the ghats the entire period.

“No, there have been no changes in regular patrolling along the ghats. However, the administration is planning its strategy for the monsoon and 138 people are now being trained. The administration will earmark around 60 dangerous ghats, from Patna to Mokama. These men will be deployed at these places for three months till the monsoon ends. They will be given life jackets and motorboats for continuous patrolling and rescuing people. Traditional boatmen are also being trained in the same group,” the official said.

The district administration’s easy-going attitude has been claiming lives. “Two girls, aged 10 and 12 years, drowned at Dulli Ghat under Khajekala police station on Wednesday. The incident took place in the morning. Komal and Kajal were neighbours and used to live in the Mittan Ghat area. They went to the river for a bath but drowned. Almost an hour later, divers arrived and fished out their bodies,” a police officer at Khajekala police station said.

On Monday, a middle-aged man, Uttam, drowned while taking a bath at Bhadra Ghat under Alamganj police station. Divers arrived late only to fish out his body.

Earlier, district administration officials had admitted the absence of patrolling at ghats to The Telegraph and the 33 divers the Patna district administration presently had were basically from the fishermen’s community who stayed at home till they were not summoned for services. Sources said the fallout of an hour’s response time of the divers was lethal in most drowning cases.

“If the response time is one hour, how can any person be saved? It is impossible unless the victim is lucky and someone who knows swimming saves him or her. There have been talks about patrolling in the past but things have never materialised. Most of the ghats are filthy and the administration doesn’t even think of cleaning them on a regular basis until Chhath arrives,” a source said.