22 people drowned, 6 went missing during Chhath festival in state

PATNA: Over 22 people drowned and six went missing in different rivers, canals and ponds across the state during Chhath festival on Thursday and Friday. Most incidents occurred in Rohtas, followed by Munger, Bhojpur, Saran and Begusarai districts, officials said.
However, the state disaster management department confirmed only 13 deaths. Umesh Kumar, the department’s monitoring and evaluation expert, said, “A total of 13 people drowned in Bihar and three went missing during Chhath. We have received reports of two deaths in Begusarai, Rohtas, Khagaria, Bhagalpur and Munger districts. Three people are missing from Munger, Araria and Rohtas districts.”
Many tragedies have been reported in Rohtas district with six people drowning in 24 hours. Four members of a family from Pathara village in Tilouthu slipped into the Sone river during Chhath rituals. Three of them – Pintu Yadav (35 years old), his son Bablu (12 years old) and younger brother Suhadi (31 years old) – drowned, and another, Vikas Yadav, was rescued by local residents. Their bodies were recovered by the state disaster response team the next morning. In another incident, a five-year-old boy drowned in a village pond on Friday morning in Rohtas.
In Munger district, three people drowned while performing Chhath rituals at different places along the Ganga River and one person went missing. One incident involved 20-year-old Abhishek Kumar, who went missing in a river near Jamalpur. Another case involved Prince Kumar (12) of Durmata village who drowned in Chhat Ghat. In a similar incident, 16-year-old Sunny Kumar drowned in Tahua pond while 9-year-old girl Sheetal Kumari died in Belharni river.
In Saran, a boat carrying 10 youth capsized in a pond in Panchbhinda village. Two youths, Bitu Kumar (20) and Suraj Kumar Paswan (19), drowned. The remaining eight were rescued by local residents. The incident caused a stir when there were delays in the arrival of ambulances, leading to road blockages near the petrol station.