5 bodies recovered -Beas Tragedy

Bodies of 5 students out of the 24 students who were washed away in the Beas  river on Sunday evening were recovered in the early hours today. 24 students of Hyderabad's VNR Vignan Jyothi engineering College were washed away in the Beas  river yesterday evening at around 7 PM ,when they had got down at the banks of the river near Thalot in Mandi District of Himachal Pradesh for sightseeing and taking pictures.  The gates of the Larji Hydro Power Project were lifted without any proper intimation and the students were caught unaware of the rising waters and were eventually washed away. Some of the students managed to escape and ran up the banks to safety.

Around 50 engineering students along with 3 faculty members left from Hyderabad and had gone for an Industrial tour toHimachal Pradesh as part of their curriculum. Rescue operation were hampered because of the delay in help coming in as it was already late in the evening .Lack of proper signal coverage to inform any one of the tragedy added to the delay in police coming in for help. It seems to be clear case of negligence of the Dam authorities in not sending proper warning signals or hooters to let people know that the gates would be lifted. A wall of water gushed on to the hapless students who were washed away in the flow.

A special Air India flight has been arranged for the parents for the students who have drowned in this tragic incident. They will be lodged in AP Bhavan at Delhi and taken in special buses to Himachal Pradesh near Mandi to claim the bodies of the students who drowned in this tragic incident.