The Himachal Pradesh High Court has ordered an ex-gratia compensation of 20 lakh rupees each to the families of 24 students of Hyderabad based College who were washed away in Beas River.
The Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board (HPSEB) and the Hyderabad-based VNR Vigna Jyothi engineering college have been ordered to pay the ex-gratia.
Himachal Pradesh state electricity board has been held responsible for the release of water into the Beas River from its Larji hydro power project dam.
The board would bear 60 percent while the college and the state government will pay 30 and 10 percent, respectively of the total compensation. The bench had also directed the college management to refund the tuition fee amount of the deceased students.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice, Justice Mansoor Ahmad Mir and Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan directed that compensation of Twenty Lakh Rupees should be paid in eight weeks from Saturday.
The unfortunate incident had occurred in Thalout area of Mandi district in the state on 8th of June 2014.
The Court also took suo moto cognizance of this incident on a media report and treated it as PIL.
