Hyderabad: The bodies of four of the five victims, including two girls, who died in Sunday’s disaster near Mandi in Himachal Pradesh were brought to the Hakimpet Air Force station at night.
The parents of the students returned with the bodies.
Expert divers, rafters, rescuers of different teams of Sashastra Seema Bal and two teams of NDRF were scouting the river.
Around 84 personnel with nine boats are involved in the rescue.
Equipment like deep diving sets and victim locator units were being used. The Army too joined the search on Monday along the 15 km stretch of the river from the accident site to the Pandoh dam.
The victims were identified as Akula Vijetha of Charlapalli, B. Rambabu of Nalgonda, G. Aishwarya of Alwal and A. Laxmi Gayatri of Kukatpally. Apart from 24 students, a bus conductor was also washed away.
The search was called off at night and will resume on Tuesday morning.
Around 22 survivors returned by flight from Kulu to Chandigarh and will return to Hyderabad by flights arranged by the government of AP.
The Telangana government is focusing on efforts to locate and bring back the bodies to Hyderabad. It has deployed Greyhounds led by SP Karthikeyan for helping the HP authorities, SSB, and NDRF.
Telangana CM K. Chandrasekhar Rao spoke to his HP counterpart Virbhadra Singh, requesting relief measures.
Telangana home minister Nayani Narasimha Reddy reached HP to personally monitor rescue operations.
According to minister K. Taraka Rama Rao, a control room has been opened in the office of the Hyderabad collector to provide information about the tragedy.
AP minister P. Narayana, Union minister Ashok Gajapati Raju and AP Relief commissioner J.C. Sharma are stationed at Kulu to monitor the situation.
The HP government has ordered a magisterial inquiry and suspension of the resident engineer of the Larji hydropower project. The Union home ministry has also asked the HP government to submit a report.
Union HRD minister Smriti Irani tweeted: “Spoke to Himachal Pradesh Education Minister Bali regarding the tragic incident. Also contacted the faculty member who was at the accident site. Was assured by tehsildar Sadar Mandi that medical aid has been provided.”
“I have also spoken to the principal of the college and assured him of cooperation. Our prayers are with the families in this hour of need,” she added. Earlier in the day, Ms Irani visited the site and oversaw rescue and salvage operations.
Mr Virbhadra Singh said, "Several buses and tourists travel up and down all through the year during the summer season. This is the first time such a tragedy has happened, which is very unfortunate. The students had come from Andhra Pradesh. Teachers should have taken precaution and prevented the students from going into the water. I, however, don't want to blame anyone."
Reacting to the allegations by locals that water was released without warning, Mr Singh made a controversial statement stating: “To which party the people of the mishap area belong to?”
