At least 50 people, mostly women and children, were feared drowned after a boat capsized in a river during a storm in eastern India, a government official said on Tuesday. About 75 people, most of whom were returning from a village fair, were on board the boat when it capsized on the Bagmati River in Bihar state late on Monday. “We have recovered 11 bodies so far and search is on for 40 other missing people,” Rajendra Prasad, an official from Khagaria district where the incident occurred, told Reuters by phone. “But their survival chances look very thin” he added. Bodies of 26 people who drowned after two boats capsized in Bihar were recovered on Tuesday even as a search was on to trace around 50 missing people, police said. National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) are engaged in rescue operations since last evening. In another mishap, eight persons died when their boat sank in Kamala Balan river in Darbhanga district last evening. All bodies were recovered. The boat, carrying 17 people, overturned during immersion of an idol of Goddess Durga. Nine persons swam to safety. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced an ex-gratia of Rs 1.50 lakh to the families of each of the deceased. Kumar asked the Khagaria district authorities to further intensify the rescue operations with the help of local fishermen. Expressing shock at the tragedy, he directed the state authorities to deploy officials to prevent overcrowding of boats. Meanwhile, chief opposition RJD-LJP front has criticised the state government for its alleged failure to stop recurrence of boat mishaps. “We demand that the state government pay an ex-gratia of Rs 10 lakh to dependents of each of the deceased, besides a government job to an eligible member of the bereaved families,” RJD spokesman Shakeel Ahmed Khan said. He also demanded that the state government come out with details of those who met a watery grave in boat mishaps during the past four years.