Senior BJP leader and former chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal on Saturday said that the report of divisional Commissioner Mandi on the Beas tragedy in which twenty-four students of Andhra Pradesh were washed away in flash floods proved that the state government had given wrong version of the incident to the people.
In a strong worded statement here on Saturday, he said that he had visited the site on the second day of the incident and had met the local people and told the media that Larji power project authorities had taken the issue lightly and not issued any warning to the people about the release of water that led to such a major tragedy.
Dhumal alleged that chief minister VB Singh who had visited the site after the incident had taken the entire episode lightly and refused to play any warning vehicle before the release of water as demanded by him. He said that the lack of sensitivity on part of the state government led to this incident, otherwise precious life could have been saved.
Dhumal said that without verifying the facts, the chief minister had given a clean chit to the dam authorities and that was a serious issue. He said that instead of saving dam authorities for their fault, the chief minister should have taken strong action against them for causing death of twenty-four innocent students.
{{/usCountry}}Dhumal said that without verifying the facts, the chief minister had given a clean chit to the dam authorities and that was a serious issue. He said that instead of saving dam authorities for their fault, the chief minister should have taken strong action against them for causing death of twenty-four innocent students.
{{/usCountry}}The BJP leader said that the report of the divisional commissioner had clarified the real position and for that the state government should own the responsibility of the cause of incident rather than trying to save its own skin as well as that of the Larji power project authorities who had released huge amount of water without giving warning to the people living on both sides of the dam.