Beas tragedy: Andhra to draw up norms on college study tours

Andhra Pradesh government would set up a three-member committee to prepare a manual listing guidelines for colleges on conducting industrial tours, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said tonight.
Addressing a programme here, wherein he distributed ex-gratia amount of Rs 5 lakh each to the kin of 24 students who were killed in the Beas river tragedy, Naidu warned of stringent action against college managements that violated the guidelines on tours.
It may be recalled that 24 engineering students of VNR Vignana Jyothi College here were washed away in flash floods in Beas in Himachal Pradesh while they were on an industrial tour on June 8 this year.

"I was at my swearing-in ceremony on the fateful day and I immediately directed Union Civil Aviation Minister P Ashok Gajapathi Raju to oversee the rescue and relief operations. The surviving students and their family members (who had gone there after the tragedy) were brought back safely with my government's intervention," Naidu recalled.
A two-minute silence was observed on the occasion in memory of the students.
Deputy Chief Minister N China Rajappa, ministers Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, P Narayana and Chief Secretary I Y R Krishna Rao, among others, were present on the occasion.