Hyderabad: Telangana high court on Wednesday directed state govt to file its response in a taken-up public interest litigation (PIL) concerning safety measures along the banks of Godavari river at Bhadrachalam, following the drowning of five SRM University students on the Andhra Pradesh side in March.A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice P Sam Koshy and Justice S Chalapathi Rao heard the PIL, which was initiated suo motu on the basis of a letter written by Justice Nagesh Bheemapaka to Chief Justice.The court directed govt to place the instructions on record through an affidavit by the next hearing and adjourned the matter to Nov 11.Justice Bheemapaka’s letter referred to a newspaper report on the incident, when seven students from the University’s Amaravati, AP, campus visited the sandbanks of Bhadrachalam during the Ugadi festival.The students were taking photographs when they accidentally moved into a deeper part of Godavari river. Five of them drowned. The letter stated that there were no warning signboards indicating danger zones and that precautionary measures were lacking at the sandbanks, which attract pilgrims and tourists.Justice Bheemapaka sought directions to govt and other officials concerned to install safety measures, including warning boards, alerts about deep or dangerous stretches, and information on unsafe sandbanks.The letter also noted that although the cited incident occurred on the Andhra Pradesh side, similar drowning incidents had been reported on the Telangana side.
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