Deaths on ferries: Legal notice seeks Tk 1 crore compensation for each victim's family

A rights organisation today (Thursday) served a legal notice on the government, requesting it to give Tk 1 crore as compensation -- in three days -- to each of the families of the victims, who died after falling sick due to heat on two overcrowded ferries on Padma River in Madaripur on Wednesday.

Law and Life Foundation sent the legal notice through its lawyers Mohammad Humayun Kabir Pallab and Mohammed Kawsar, also asking the authorities concerned of the government to conduct an inquiry to find out the persons responsible for the deaths and to bring them to justice.

The legal notice was sent through email and courier to the secretaries to the ministries of shipping and home affairs, chairman of Bangladesh Inland Water Development Authority (BIWTA) and director general of department of shipping, saying that the ferries operate under their jurisdiction.

But they could not take proper decision on transportation and operating the ferries, which is a negligence in discharging responsibility resulting in deaths of five people, they said in the legal notice.

They also said the respondents have violated the constitutional right to life of the five people through their negligence in discharging responsibility.

Appropriate legal action will be taken if the respondents do not respond to the legal notice in three days, according to the legal notice.

Five people died after they fell sick due to heat on two overcrowded ferries in Madaripur's Banglabazar on Wednesday.