Naini submits report on Beas tragedy to KCR

• search operations to go on for a week
  
• T Govt to take a call on continuation of industrial tours

Hyderabad: The Telangana government has decided to continue the search operations in river Beas for another one week and hopes to find the missing bodies of the students who were drowned in the gushing waters released from Larji dam on June 8 at Mandi in Himachal Pradesh Briefing reporters here on Tuesday the Telangana Home Minister Naini Narsimha Reddy said that he had submitted a report on Beas river tragedy to Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. Refusing to disclose the contents of the report, he, however said that Chief Minister would write a letter to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi on this incident besides taking a call on whether or not to continue the so-called ‘industrial tours’.

The Minister said, that he met Rao in the morning and briefed him about the progress of the search operations at the accident site in Mandi. He said that Chief Minister had sought a detailed report so that government could take proper action.

Naini was of the opinion that incident took place due to negligence on the part of Largi dam authorities, who released water without issuing alerts, and the irresponsible and attitude of the college management. He said, the College did not send a senior faculty member nor did it attach a local guide. Those who were leading the students failed to prevent the students from venturing inside the river to take pictures despite warnings from locals. All these factors contributed to the accident, he felt. The minister said that search operations would continue at the site for at least one more week. No bodies were recovered inspite of using latest Sonar technology in the last few days, he said adding that around 700-800 personnel from different departments have been combing every inch upto an area of 6 km. The minister said that barring a few members most of the victim families have returned home on Monday..

The fact that locals in Himachal Pradesh were praising Telangana government for undertaking rescue and search operations on a large scale like never seen before in their region speaks volumes about prompt actions and decisions taken by our Chief Minister, he added.

Meanwhile, the home minister appealed to Telugu Desam Party not to politicize this issue. He said that they did not think along Telangana or Seemandhra lines. He however, criticised the Minister and other leaders from Andhra Pradesh. “They came in the morning and left by evening,” he said.

Naini ruled out closing VNR Vignana Jyoty engineering college for lapses since thousands of students were pursuing studies in different disciplines right now. He said that college management had come forward to give Rs 2 lakh insurance besides returning college fees and education loans (if any taken). They also promised to enroll sibling of deceased students in their college for engineering education. Some of them sought government jobs and they would soon be meeting Chief Minister in this regard, Naini said.