Lifeguards save the day as they rescue four youth amid Holi celebrations

A young man being rescued by a group of lifeguards at RK beach in Visakhapatnam on Monday. | Photo Credit: V. Raju

Amid Holi celebrations, a team of lifeguards saved the lives of four young men at two different beach locations, RK Beach and Appikonda Beach, here on Monday.

Lifeguards J. Harish, M. Naveen, B. Aravind, P. Achchanna, and M. Kishore at RK Beach (Pandurangapuram) rescued Kaushik, an intermediate student of Sri Chaitanya College of Railway New Colony, and Bashir of Narayana College from the same area. At Appikonda Beach, lifeguards Venkatesh, Tatarao and Lokesh Kumar saved S. Kumar and G. Kumar of Gajuwaka.

A lifeguard M. Naveen Kumar, who along with his team was appreciated for rescuing the two youths at RK beach told The Hindu: “As soon as we get notified by the beach visitors or police about any missing persons in the sea, we jump into the sea to rescue them. We can swim up to three kilometres from the shore and back in one attempt. However, missing of persons usually occurs less than 100 meters in the sea here.”

The Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) manages the lifeguards and their salaries. As part of their responsibilities, every lifeguard should remain at their designated points from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. and must respond to the emergency alerts given by the police and GVMC’s Command Control team.

At present 42 lifeguards have been deployed at points such as Bheemunipatnam, IT Junction, Sagar Nagar, Radisson Blu, Appughar, Jodugullapalem, RK Beach, Coastal Battery, Appikonda and Yarada beaches. Additionally, GVMC has also placed lifeguards at Mudasarlova and Meghadrigedda reservoirs.

“GVMC pays us ₹18,600 per month without any gaps. However, we requested some advanced gadgets like the rescue tube, spinal board, observation chair, portable loudspeaker, rescue surf boat, first-aid kits, searchlight, binoculars, siren and life buoy for efficient services and rescue operation in time. Any sponsor, including politicians who are currently campaigning for elections, can also provide the gadgets. We have 42 people. So, even the sponsored amount for the gadgets may not be huge compared with the amount they spend on other campaign materials,” Mr. Naveen concluded.