Callous officials, watery graves.
By Rajiv Theodore
NEW DELHI: IF you are not careful a river can be very treacherous even for the best of swimmers. These water bodies, especially those meandering close to the Himalayan foothills, can stun the visitor with their beauty and grace but always lurking within its dark underbelly is the danger of death.
Usually heavy rainfall, cloud bursts and landslides, which raises the swell of these rivers, contribute to their fatal attraction. It was only in the middle of last year that scores of people lost their lives to nature’s fury in Uttrakhand.
And now once again these rivers have drawn blood. About 24 students from an Andhra Pradesh engineering college, a bunch of girls and boys, were swept away by the Beas River while they were taking photographs and reveling on its scenic banks.
The fault however, this time lies squarely and firmly on the engineers of the Larji Hydro power station who released water into the river without warning. Locals of nearby villages of Thalout, Shalanala near Mandi district claim that the water is usually released in the night at around 9 PM but this time it was let out at about 6 PM and that too without the customary hooters that have been installed along its banks.
As of now, only five bodies have been found and there is an overwhelming sense of gloom pervading over the chances of any survivors as more than 48-hours have passed.
Kiran Kumar, one of the students who had been washed away, recounted the heroics of a survivor, who managed to push to safety four of his peers, but in the process lost precious time for himself and disappeared into the dark swirling waters.
The Himachal Pradesh court did not mince any words on this incident. It has termed it as a ‘’grave negligence’’ on the part of the state and asked it to file a report by Monday. Even the state development Minister Anil Sharma accepted the lapses by the engineers at the Larji Hydro project who gave orders to release the water without warning.
Calling it a case of “grave negligence”, the Himachal Pradesh High Court on Tuesday asked the state government to file a report by June 16 on the incident. The direction from the High Court came after a huge protest after the incident.
Also, the newly formed Telangana government has decided to sue the Himachal Pradesh Dam authorities as well as the VNR Engineering College to which the students who drowned in the tragedy belonged to.
Telangana Home Minister Narsimha Reddy said, “The Telangana government will take legal action against the Himachal Pradesh dam authority for criminal negligence leading to the loss of innocent lives and the college authorities for taking students for a picnic by saying it was an industrial training tour.”
The engineers and staff of the hydropower project being run by the state electricity board have been suspended pending an inquiry. The state electricity board authorities claim that the hooters were sounded as a warning when the waters were released but the locals deny any such move.
As for now, for the dozens of parents it is only hope that they are clinging to against a swinging tide of rationality that the river makes watery graves too.