Patna: The Bihar government on Tuesday filed a counter-affidavit in Patna High Court on the boat tragedy in Patna's Sabalpur Diara on Makar Sankranti in January in which 24 people were killed.

The additional secretary of the state disaster management, Anirudh Kumar, filed the counter-affidavit in the court of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice Anil Kumar Upadhyay. In its counter affidavit filed on Tuesday, the government accepted that the capsizing of the boat and loss of valuable human lives was tragic and the state government was taking all steps to prevent such incidents in future.

In its order on September 11, the same bench had directed the state to submit the inquiry report of the high-powered committee investigating the tragedy. The court had also directed the state to give details of the actions taken by the government in this regard.