The death toll in the Tiware dam breach incident has gone up to 15 with the recovery of four more bodies on Thursday, police said.
As several more people are feared dead in the incident, the search operation launched by the teams of police and the National Disaster Response Force is still on, an official said.
The Tiware dam in Chiplun taluka of Ratnagiri district breached late on Tuesday night. Total 23 persons are feared dead in the incident and bodies of 11 persons were recovered till Wednesday.
"Four more bodies were found Thursday. The bodies were either found in water or lying near bushes," the official said.
Some of the deceased were identified as Chandrabhaga Chavan, Atmaram Chavan and their kin Pandurang, Sharda, Dashrath, Sandesh Dhadve, Nandaram, Vaishnavi, Anusaya, Ravindra, Rakesh Ghanekar, Sunil Pawar and Rutuja Chavan.
According to the official, Rutuja's body was found around 30 km away from Tiware village under a bridge on Vashishthi river and she was identified on the basis of her
ear-rings.
"Post-mortem was performed at Kamthe Hospital in Chiplun and the bodies were handed over to their relatives," Vishal Gaikwad, Additional Superintendent of Police,
Ratnagiri, said.
"The search operation is still is on," he said.
Meanwhile, a demand for compensation to the families of those killed in the Tiware dam breach in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra was raised in Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
Raising the issue through a Zero Hour mention, Husain Dalwai of the Congress said it is not true that incessant rains in the region led to the breach of the dam.
The district collector was on February 12 in writing informed of the dam requiring urgent repairs but it was never done, he said.
The dam, he said, was built in 2012 at a cost of Rs 12 crore against the initial estimate of Rs 2 crore.
He demanded that compensation be paid to families of the dead and those whose houses were washed away be rehabilitated.
Also, action should be taken against the contractor and engineer, he said.
