The Beas River Tragedy in which 24 engineering students from Hyderabad-based VNR Vigyan Jyothi Institute of Engineering and Technology were washed to death in Himachal Pradesh on June 8, 2014, shook the conscience of the nation. But, incidents in which loss of life of students in similar circumstances regularly reported from across the country.
Hyderabad: The Bears River Tragedy in which 24 engineering students from Hyderabad-based VNR Vigyan Jyothi Institute of Engineering and Technology were drowned to death when they had gone on a tour to Himachal Pradesh. The incident which shook the nation’s conscience and questions were raised and demands were made to review the policy of making the final industrial tours, and other trips mandatory. In the aftermath of the incident, directions were given to the universities in the both Telugu speaking states, to scrap a mandatory industrial or other tours in the final years of the students.
However, lack of any monitoring mechanism from the government’s side, negligence of college managements has been resulting in loss of precious lives of the students, not only in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh but also in several neighboring states.
In the month of August 2015, engineering students from VR Siddhartha Engineering College, Vijayawada were drowned to death in river Krishna. Out of ten students of the final year of civil engineering were deployed to conduct a survey on water resources right in the middle of the river Krishna. The students without wearing any life-saving jackets had gone into the river to carry out their project work. But, little knowing that there exist deep pits in the river bed the students walked into the river thinking that the river bed has an even formation. But, officials pointed out that due to extensive sand mining carried out in the area, the river bed has deep pits at several places, and unknowingly the students walked into one of those pits and, as a result, washed away deep into the river currents causing their death.
On the last day of December 2015, a group of 50 students all in their teens studying in Sunshine Mission School in Badrak of neighboring Odisha were taken for a picnic by their teachers But, three of the students had stepped into deep waters of river Rishikulya near the Taratarini Hill Shrine in Ganjam District, to take bath. And, none of the students were given life jackets, or no lifeguards were present on the river banks by the authorities. What is more curious was that the teachers had gone into hiding on knowing that the local people would attack them for not taking proper care of the school children resulting in their deaths.
In another incident during the same year, in Chhattisgarh, three engineering students from MMCT Engineering College were drowned to death when they had gone to in a stop-dam in Mandir Hasaud area for an outing and were drowned to death while taking the bath.
Back in Andhra Pradesh, out of four students of Vignan College of Engineering in Vadlamudi in Krishna district two were washed away in the sea while taking the bath at Suryalanka beach. Numerous cases of student deaths due to drowning were being reported, from within the State and across different states in the country, there seems no mechanism in place to arrest such incidents.
Nailing such negligence on the party of the parties concerned, the Himachal Pradesh High Court on Saturday had slapped an exemplary penalty on the Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board, the College and the government for the loss of 24 engineering students who had washed away in river Beas on June 8, 2014.
The court in its judgment directed payment of Rs 20 lakh as compensation to the parents of each student who were washed away in the river and lost their lives.
A division bench of Chief Justice Mansoor Ahmad Mir and Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan directed that the amount compensation, including the interim compensation of Rs.500,000 already paid, would be paid along with interest at the rate of 7.5 per cent per annum from the date of the accident till realization of the money.
The court order has asked the Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board, Management of the Engineer College and the state government to share the burden in the ratio of 60:30:10. The judges observed that the “Board authorities had a major role and they failed to exercise due care and thus saddled with liability up to 60 per cent.” “The college authorities should also have ascertained all the facts including the circumstances and other factors previously in the area before planning the excursion and we deem it proper to hold the college responsible up to 30 per cent and remaining liability of 10 per cent would be borne by the state government,” the court said.
