Mumbai: Thirty-seven lives on barge P305 that sank into the Arabian Sea four days ago could have been saved if the captain would have taken the cyclonic warnings seriously.
The revelation was made by the barge’s workman Abhishek Awhad, who is among the 188 men rescued from the vessel. "Captain was thinking that nothing will happen to the barge and the winds were not expected to affect much, but when the barge sank, he asked us to jump off and called Indian Coast Guards to rescue us".
As per reports, the Coast Guard sent warnings to ONGC that all vessels should come back to the harbour as the cyclone advanced closer to the Mumbai coast. However, despite the warnings, the personnel remained on board the barge.
"Despite many alerts on Cyclone Tauktae, the ONGC neglected the alert, the lives of 600 workers were in danger. They were not shifted to a safer place. More than 40 people are still missing, hundreds of workers were fighting for their lives in the rough sea. Responsibility should be fixed. It is the responsibility of ONGC, those officials responsible for this should be suspended," Malik said.
Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has set up a panel for enquiry in the matter on Thursday. The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas announced a high-level inquiry into “lapses and gaps” in the system.
Read: Barge P305 deaths: ONGC must be held responsible, says Nawab Malik
The inquiry would look into the sequence of events that led to the stranding and drifting of ONGC vessels, and whether the warnings issued for securing the vessels were adequately considered and acted upon.
