Bhubaneswar: About 16 years after seven students had met their watery grave when Hirakud dam authorities had released water without prior warning, a local court directed Odisha government to pay compensation of Rs 25 lakh along with interest to each of the families.
The Civil Judge (Senior Division), Bhubaneswar, Sangram Keshari Patnaik yesterday directed the government to pay the compensation along with 6 percent interest on it with effect from 2001 to the families of seven engineering students who were drowned in the incident on January 30, 1998.
The Civil Judge delivered his judgement after examining 77 witnesses and 31 affidavits. Eight students of Burla Engineering College had gone to Mahanadi river bed near the institute on the fateful day to take photographs. While they were busy taking photos pictures, the Hirakud dam authorities without any prior warning, had released water from nine gates of the dam, the petitioner said.
The students, who were on the rock in middle of the river, were suddenly submerged by about 15-feet high water. Only one of them managed to swim ashore, while the other seven were swept away and their bodies were found four days later.
Besides conducting an administrative inquiry by the revenue divisional commissioner (RDC), the state government had then suspended some officials, including a chief engineer of water resource department working in the Hirakud
reservoir.
The state government had also earlier paid compensation of Rs three lakh each to the families of the deceased students based on the RDC's report. The families disgruntled with the compensation provided by the government had moved Odisha High Court, which then directed the civil judge (senior division) of Bhubaneswar to give a final judgement in the matter.
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