Due to frequent incidents of drowning of school and college students in rivers in and around Cuttack city, the district administration has issued an advisory asking the students not to venture into water bodies during festive occasions without the supervision of experts.
The advisory came after an administrative enquiry report suggested that the students excitedly participate in the immersion festivals of Ganesh Puja and Saraswati Puja and enter water bodies to immerse the clay idols. It has also been decided to ensure that the height of idols for these pujas shall not be more than three feet so that they could be immersed in shallow waters.
“Besides these occasions, we have also asked the students not to enter into water bodies during Holi festival and Sani Osha,” said District Collector N. C. Mishra adding that instructions in this regard have been issued to all school and college authorities of the district, including Ravenshaw University, to sensitise the students.
The administrative enquiry was ordered soon after the drowning of four Ravenshaw University students on April 2 this year in Mahanadi River near Jobra barrage.
A three-member committee headed by Additional District Magistrate B. B. Dash has found that the University students died of asphyxiation caused due to drowning while bathing.
“No outside factor seemed to have motivated the students for a bath in the river. There seems to be no foul play behind it. It was a decision of theirs out of an anxiety for an enjoyable bath in the cool river waters on a hot summer day,” the committee said in its report.
