So many meeting their watery grave again!

Whatever might have been the precise reason behind the disaster, a closer look into it shows that river journey remains as perilous as it always has been, despite government's commitments on the heels of previous accidents that effective steps would be taken to stop such unfortunate deaths. To begin with, the launch was overloaded, a high risk factor that could not be eliminated even after so much of fuss. Navigational rules seem to exist only in theory.

Then weather forecasting is also quite unsatisfactory. The forecasts have not been fine-tuned by way of an hour-by-hour signalling system. In short, things remain where they were in the past. Only two years ago, the shipping ministry had even imposed a ban on launches leaving terminals in the evening, especially when the nor'wester season approached or got actually underway. The ban has not proved effective, as is evidenced in the latest incident where the weather was murky with drizzles boding ill.

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We have not learned anything from the major launch mishaps in the past. The river crafts have not been equipped with modern devices to lessen their vulnerability to such sudden changes in weather.

Something has to be said about the rescue operation also. It has been slow, halting and inadequate. The launch was finally salvaged on Monday morning, but such a situation demanded a quicker and more effective response from the rescue operators.

The shipping ministry should make a public statement on the measures so far adopted by it to ward off launch disasters, following the major accidents in the recent years. Clearly, it is not enough to condole the deaths of passengers, constitute a probe committee and hold out assurances afresh that steps would be taken to set things right which are destined to die down after the dusts settled. For God's sake, let there be some tangible difference in terms of practice of safety standards this time around.