<p>Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh Tuesday said there was no proposal to build a memorial for the 24 engineering students from Hyderabad who were drowned in the Beas river.<br /><br /></p>.<p>"What happened in the Beas river was gruesome. But such accidents have happened in the past also. There are so many road accidents also. We can't allow a memorial in every case. They can at the most put up a plaque," Virbhadra Singh told reporters here.<br /><br />He said the government has gone out of the way to retrieve the bodies.<br />"Around 800 people, including divers, are continuously searching for bodies near the Pandoh dam," he said.<br /><br />The chief minister was replying to a media query on Telangana Forest Minister Jogi Ramana's proposal to build a memorial at the accident spot.<br /><br />Ramanna, who is camping in Mandi to oversee the search operation, Monday said that if Himachal Pradesh agreed to the proposal to build a memorial, his government would provide financial help.<br /><br />Ramanna also said he would talk to the central government on this issue.<br />Virbhadra Singh, however, said the centre has no role in this regard.<br /><br />The 24 students who drowned were from the V.N.R. Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering and Technology in Hyderabad and they were on an excursion to Manali.<br />The students and a tour operator were swept away after water from a nearby hydropower project dam was released without warning June 8.<br /><br />The tragedy occurred when the students reached the river bed for a picture-postcard shoot with the gurgling river in the background. A sudden wall of water released into the river swept all of them away.</p>
<p>Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh Tuesday said there was no proposal to build a memorial for the 24 engineering students from Hyderabad who were drowned in the Beas river.<br /><br /></p>.<p>"What happened in the Beas river was gruesome. But such accidents have happened in the past also. There are so many road accidents also. We can't allow a memorial in every case. They can at the most put up a plaque," Virbhadra Singh told reporters here.<br /><br />He said the government has gone out of the way to retrieve the bodies.<br />"Around 800 people, including divers, are continuously searching for bodies near the Pandoh dam," he said.<br /><br />The chief minister was replying to a media query on Telangana Forest Minister Jogi Ramana's proposal to build a memorial at the accident spot.<br /><br />Ramanna, who is camping in Mandi to oversee the search operation, Monday said that if Himachal Pradesh agreed to the proposal to build a memorial, his government would provide financial help.<br /><br />Ramanna also said he would talk to the central government on this issue.<br />Virbhadra Singh, however, said the centre has no role in this regard.<br /><br />The 24 students who drowned were from the V.N.R. Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering and Technology in Hyderabad and they were on an excursion to Manali.<br />The students and a tour operator were swept away after water from a nearby hydropower project dam was released without warning June 8.<br /><br />The tragedy occurred when the students reached the river bed for a picture-postcard shoot with the gurgling river in the background. A sudden wall of water released into the river swept all of them away.</p>