Beas River Tragedy: Rescue On, 5 Bodies Recovered

Rescue workers on Monday recovered the bodies of 5 of the students who were washed away by the Beas river on Sunday evening.

At least 24 students, including 6 girls, of the VNR Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering and Technology in Hyderabad went missing after strong currents of the Beas river washed them away.

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh visited the spot, and ordered Mandi Deputy Commissioner Devesh Kumar to enquire into the incident.

The Himachal Pradesh government suspended the project engineer-in-charge of the Larji Dam from which the waters had been released.

The rescue operation is being conducted by the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) force.

Meanwhile, Telangana Home Minister Nayani Narasimha Reddy reached Kullu to personally oversee the rescue and relief operations.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who was informed about the incident during the cabinet meeting on Sunday evening, directed the Home Minister to rush to the spot along with Disaster Management Commissioner B R Meena and Grey Hounds SP Karthikeyan.

KCR also spoke to the Himachal Pradesh CM and requested him to take immediate relief measures.

The Telangana government has arranged a special flight to take the parents of the victims to Chandigarh, and also to bring them back along with the students who had survived.

Air Costa has also been asked to take the parents to Himachal Pradesh and bring them back to Hyderabad along with the students who survived.

Telangana Chief Secretary Dr Rajiv Sharma contacted the officials of the Union Home and Defence Ministries and other agencies to transport the bodies to Hyderabad. The government of Telangana has already given a requisition to the Defence Ministry for a helicopter and an aircraft at the spot of the incident in Kullu, to bring back the bodies to Delhi and then to Hyderabad.

ITBP and NDRF have also been pressed into service to locate the dead bodies. (INN)