The floating crane lifts a truck out of the river on Wednesday. Picture by Surajit Roy

Malda, Jan. 14: Nearly 24 hours after MV Khejuria went down into the Ganga with over 600 passengers and six trucks, the 2,500-tonne ferry remained half submerged at Manikchak Ghat with its stern bobbing above the water.

Salvage operations began this evening, amid allegations that the administration had failed to get the launch out of the water even after a day. Police said engineers were being brought from Calcutta to lift the ferry.

A floating crane had been brought from Rajmahal Ghat in neighbouring Jharkhand to lift the six trucks. The operation was complete by 7pm.

Around 5pm yesterday, the launch began sinking when it was approaching Manikchak Ghat, 40km from here.

“As it touched the bank, the trucks started for the wooden plank that connected the steamer to the bank. Suddenly one end of the steamer tilted and the front part went down, probably because of overweight,” said Amlan Mondal, a witness.

The passengers, who were then getting ready to embark, suddenly made a dash for the bank. There was a scurry and many who knew swimming jumped into the water.

The steamer has a private owner, Bacchu Singh, from Jharkhand. He is in charge of the ghat as well.

The people of Manikchak block, however, have blamed the district administration for the state of affairs at the ghat. The CPM pradhan of the Manikchak gram panchayat, Srinath Mondol, alleged that the administration had no regard for the safety and security of the 15,000 to 20,000 passengers who travelled between Manikchak and Rajmahal on weekdays.

“If the ferry had sank in the middle of the Ganga, it would have been disastrous.

There is no rescue equipment or boats ready that could have been pressed into service if something like that had occurred,” Mondol said.

The Congress sabhapati of the Manikchak panchayat samiti, Prasenjit Mondol, said there was no understanding between the West Bengal and Jharkhand governments regarding the Manikchak ghat. “Nobody knows who is in charge and that is why there are no lights, safety equipment and even security for passengers, many of whom get robbed by local criminals after nightfall,” he said.

The local MLA, the CPM’s Ashima Chowdhury, alleged that the administration was very secretive about the annual bids done to choose ferry-operators to run the service between Manikchak and Rajmahal. “I have heard that the bid for 2009-2010 was done at Rs 1.7 lakh but there was no effort to develop or renovate the ghat,” she alleged.

The executive officer of the land and land reforms department of Malda, Amiya Biswas, said the person who won the annual lease (in this case Singh) was supposed to look after the ghat.

“He will have to provide lights, toilets and keep the place in proper order. I have asked for a report from our officer in Manikchak block, asking for all details about the capsize. We will also see whether the mishap occurred because of overloading,” Biswas said. Singh could not be contacted.

Sanjoy Ghosh, the officer-in-charge of the Manikchak police station, said the launch sank because of excess loading. “There were six trucks and some of them were carrying stone chips. Besides, there were around 600 people on board,” said Ghosh, who led yesterday’s rescue operations.