Chandra Mohan Patowary orders suspension of three IWT officials

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• Dec 3, 2021 | moderator

Guwahati: Assam transport minister Chandra Mohan Patowary has directed the Chairman of Inland Water Transport department to immediately suspend three of its officials in connection to the case where a passenger jumped into the Brahmaputra River and has since remained untraceable.

In a press release, the transport ministry informed of the suspensions. The release read, “In connection to the travelling of passengers in RPL Digaru vessel from Nimati ghat to Kamalabari ghat today, manual tickets were issued to few passengers without maintaining records/details due to the server downtime of the e-ticketing server. Later on, one such passenger jumped into the Brahmaputra River and has remained untraceable.”

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It added, “In this regard, as per the direction of Transport Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary, Transport Department has suspended Ashim Kumar Baruah, Junior Engineer, IWT Jorhat Sub-Division with immediate effect. Alok Gogoi and Bitupon Boruah both Section Assistants have also been placed under suspension for not maintaining details of passengers travelling”. 

The official release further said, “Vivekananda Phookan, Chairperson of the Assam Inland Water Transport Regulatory Authority has been directed to carry out an inquiry to ascertain facts and circumstances leading to the incident and related issues and submit report on the same within 15 days”.