Beas river mishap: Telangana Home Minister leaves for HP

Hyderabad: Telangana Home Minister Naini Narsimha Reddy and government officials along with a police team on Monday left for Himachal Pradesh in the wake of 25 engineering students from the city being washed away in the Beas river in the hill state. [caption id=“attachment_1562235” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AFP[/caption] Two teams of NDRF comprising 45 members each have been dispatched to the mishap site to help local authorities in relief and rescue operations, according to a senior official of NDRF. Earlier, as the Home Minister reached the airport, some parents of the students tried to gherao him, demanding he provide information about their kin. They alleged that the government had not responded properly to the incident despite getting information from HP about the mishap. They sought to know what measures the government had taken to trace the missing students and alleged that no proper communication was provided to them about the incident. Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, after a Cabinet meeting held last night, had directed that the Home Minister along with a team of senior government officials visit the spot. The Chief Minister had also directed Chief Secretary Rajiv Sharma to be in touch with his counterpart in Himachal Pradesh to expedite rescue operations. He also instructed the Resident Commissioner of Telangana in New Delhi to coordinate with the HP government. In a related development, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday held a review meeting here over the incident and directed the officials to arrange a special flight upto Chandigarh for taking parents of the students. The parents will be taken to HP by road from Chandigarh. Twenty-five students, who were taking photographs on the bank of river Beas near Thalot on Manali-Kiratpur Highway, 40 kms from Mandi, were washed away last evening on Sunday when the discharge of water in the river suddenly increased due to release of water from the reservoir of 126 MW Larji hydropower project. PTI