Suryap

Kendrapara: The death toll in Kendrapara boat tragedy rose to 10 after the body of a six-year-old minor girl was recovered from Mahanadi river near Nipania in district today. Moreover, tension prevailed at Hasina village after locals opposed people’s representatives who had gone to the village to disburse ex gratia to the family members of the victims.

As per reports, Minister Prafulla Samal, MP Kulamani Samal and MLA Debashish Samantaray had to face public wrath during their visit to Hasina village along with district collector to provide the ex gratia amount and Rs 10,000 assistance from the Red Cross Fund.

However, the villagers opposed the visit of the elected representative and demanded that the compensation amount should be increased to Rs 10 lakh.

Sources said some families of the victims even did not take the compensation.

Earlier, the villagers had staged a road blockade yesterday demanding a hike in the compensation amount and the district administration officials had assured to look into the demands. They alleged that the people's representatives hurriedly visited the village and distributed Rs 4 lakh compensation as declared by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik following the mishap on January 2.

Meanwhile, body of the six-year-old girl, who was missing after the boat mishap, was recovered by the ODRAF team today.

Earlier, bodies of nine persons were fished out from Mahanadi river mouth near Nipania on Wednesday night. All the victims were residents of Hasina village in Jagatsinghpur district.

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