Himachal tragedy: VNR college to seek probe into the mishap

Hyderabad, Students of a city-based engineering college will write to the Prime Minister's Office seeking an independent probe into the river mishap in which 24 students of their college were killed and to speed up ongoing relief measures.

Some survivors of the incident and students of VNR Vijyana Jyothi Institute of Engineering will also file an RTI query seeking to know what procedures and precautions were taken by authorities concerned before discharge of water from the dam into the Beas river which led to the incident, P Anirudh, a representative of students and others told reporters today.

The RTI query will expose the alleged negligence of the Himachal Pradesh government on why danger mark sign boards were not placed near the dam and on lack of fencing near the river besides why no siren or alarm was sounded before the release of water, they said.

We are here to share solidarity with the families who lost their loved ones. This isn't for or against the college management, they along with some alumni members of the college said. We are really sick of the blame game and don't want to be a part of it.

We would like to clarify that we are here to extend support to all the parents (who lost their children) in the mishap, they said.

Twenty four out of 48 students of the VNR Vijyana Jyothi Institute of Engineering here, who had gone on a study tour on June 3, were swept away in the swirling waters of the Beas river while taking photographs on Sunday.

The students have demanded that the central government give a bravery award (posthumous) to one Kiran Kumar, a missing student in the incident who rescued three students from being washed away in the river.