Tanur (Malappuram): Minister for Tourism P A Mohamed Riyas, who won laurels for coordinating the rescue operation after the Atlantic sank, ignored the complaint against the recreational boat service, said Muhajil M P, a fisherman in Tanur.
"Had Riyas acted on my complaint and stopped Atlantic, 22 lives could have been saved," he told Onmanorama.
Fourteen days after Muhajil personally told Riyas of the precarious Atlantic, the boat sank.
On April 23, Sunday, a day after Eid al-Fitr, Riyas and the minister for sports and Tanur MLA V Abdurahiman were on Tanur's Ottumpuram beach to inaugurate a 100-metre-long floating bridge.
After the inaugural speech, when Riyas got down the dais and walked towards the floating bridge, Muhajil approached the minister. "I held Riyas's hand and told him that I had come to him because I trusted him," Muhajil said.
"The minister told me that he will not fail my trust in him and asked me to tell what was on my mind," he said.
Muhajil told the tourism minister about Atlantic and how it was illegally modified from a fishing boat and was not registered with the Port Office and it routinely carried more passengers than its capacity of 22 persons.
The minister heard him out and asked his staffer to take his complaint in writing. "Since I cannot write, I dictated my complaint and his PA wrote it down. He also took my phone number," Muhajil said.
Atlantic, owned by Nassar Pattarakath (47), used to carry tourists flocking to Thooval Theeram -- the estuary of Poorapuzha River -- next to Ottumpuram beach. Muhajil owns an eight-seater recreational boat and is a business rival of Nassar. "It was easy to dismiss my concerns because I also own a boat. But my fears were genuine because of the overcrowding," he said.
When ministers Riyas and Abdurahiman returned after walking on the floating bridge, Muhajil approached the sports minister and raised the same concerns. "Abdurahiman raised his voice and asked who was I to say the boat did not have papers. He said the boat had all the required papers and permissions. I was taken aback by his hostility," he said.
Muhajil was persistent. He then approached Malappuram district Collector V R Premkumar, who was also at the venue. "Nassar stood behind the Collector and told him that I was mentally unstable and my complaint should be ignored," said Muhajil.
But the collector gave Muhajil his number and asked him to come to the collectorate and file his complaint.
"Though Riyas's staff took my complaint, there was no action on it nor did anyone from the minister's office call him," said Muhajil
On April 22, Saturday, Eid Day, Muhajil shot a video of passengers coming out of Atlantic and raised hue and cry because of the crowding in the boat. "It was 2.30 pm and Atlantic's second trip. The boat had around 35 passengers when the capacity was only 15 to 20," he said.
He then called Tanur's sub-inspector, who came and stopped the service of all four recreational boats at Thooval Theeram till the boat owners showed all the documents.
The two eight-seater recreational boats had all documents and permissions. But Jai Hanuman, a 13-seater leisure boat, and 22-seater Atlantic were not registered with the Port office and importantly were illegally converted to passenger boats from fishing boats.
But after the ministers left after inaugurating the floating bridge, Atlantic and Jai Hanuman resumed service.
Justice B Kemal Pasha, who retired from the High Court of Kerala, told Onmanorama that Tanur police allowed Atlantic to resume service after Minister Abdurahiman made a phone call to the police.
A few days later, Atlantic started sporting a registration number on its hull: KIV/BPR/PV/99/23. "The boat's registration process is not yet complete. How and under whose intervention did Atlantic get the registration number?" said Muhajil.
Atlantic did not have papers, says broker
On January 1, CPM leader in Tanur and Nassar Pattarakath's elder brother Hamsakutty approached Kabeer A K to buy a used boat.
Kabeer is a serang with 32 years of experience helming small boats. His house sits on the edge of an illegal boatyard at Azhikkal in Ponnani and sometimes acts as a broker for used boats.
"Hamsakutty told me that the boat was for recreational purposes, mostly to take a small family for a short trip," Kabeer said.
The broker showed Hamsakutty a fishing boat made of fibreglass. The previous owner fell into debt and could not maintain it. He sold its two motors and abandoned it. Crucially, the boat did not have any documents. "I told Hamsakutty that the boat did not have any papers. But he told me that the papers and permissions would be arranged," Kabeer said.
Kabeer and Hamsakutty fixed the deal for Rs 95,000. "I took a broker fee of Rs 7,500," he said.
The boat was then taken to the unregistered yard at Azhikkal. They hired Varghese, an experienced boatmaker, to modify it.
"A few weeks after the work started, the Port Officer from Alappuzha visited the yard and asked Varghese to stop the work," said Kabeer.
A boat can be built or modified only after its drawing, prepared by a naval architect, is approved by the Port Office. Also, it can be modified only at an accredited yard, according to Kerala Inland Vessels Rule 2010.
After several days, Varghese was called back and the work on the boat resumed. "I don't know how it was done but there were no further interruptions," Kabeer said.
Mohammed Nisar, a boat owner at Thooval Theeram, said the Port Officer from Alappuzha made the trip to the yard on his complaint.
V J Mathew, the former chairman of Kerala Maritime Board, said the designs of fishing boats and passenger boats were vastly different, and that was why fishing boats were not allowed to be converted to passenger boats.
In an RTI reply in January, the Malappuram Deputy Director of Fisheries also said fishing boats cannot be modified and used for tourist purposes.
But the Kerala Maritime Board chief executive T P Salim Kumar intervened in favour of Nassar and Atlantic got the certificate of survey and cleared the stability test for 22 persons. Its registration process was still pending when it sank.
"It would not have turned turtle if they carried only 20 passengers. Varghese had told them before handing over the boat that no one should sit on the upper deck and only 20 passengers should be carried at a time," Kabeer said.
