SHIMLA: Taking suo motu notice of the Beas tragedy involving Hyderabad-based engineering students, the Himachal High Court Monday directed the state government to file the status report by June 16.
The High Court treated the news reports in this regard as PIL and issued a notice to the state government to file the status report within a week.
"Going by contents of news items, it is a sad tale that sheer fun of young students turned fatal as a consequence of utter and callous negligence of power project authorities," Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan said.
"In case the water was discharged without any warning as alleged, then prima facie it is established that it is not only a case of callousness but a case of grave negligence on the part of project authorities," he said.
"It cannot even be said to be an error of judgment or accident inasmuch as it is the duty of the authorities to at least issue a warning and resort to usual and common method of blaring the siren to ensure evacuation of the river bank before discharging the water.
"Therefore, the project authorities have prima facie displayed callous and wanton disregard to their duties," the judge said.
He asked the government to file a status report with special reference to the cause of incident and details of the steps taken with regard to relief and rescue operations.
Bodies of five students, who were washed away in the turbulent waters of Beas river along with 19 classmates and a tour operator, were found today.
Search continued for the 19 students and tour operator Prahlad who were engaged in a photo session on the bank of Beas when they were swept away due to sudden discharge of water in the river.
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