Varanasi, May 16 (UNI) A day after tragic accident in which 18 people died as pillar span of under construction over bridge fell on cars and buses on Tuesday, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath admitted “fault” on the part of officials of Bridge Corporation, the construction company, and said the government has lodged FIRs against the guilty and made fresh appointments suspending those who were in-charge of the project in Varanasi.
Government had suspended Chief Project Manager HC Tiwari, Project Manager K Sudan, Assistant engineer Rajesh Singh and Junior engineer Lal Chand late last night and on Wednesday appointed A K Srivastava as Chief Project Manager and Sanjiv Gupta as Project Manager.
“The fresh appointments have been made to ensure that suspension of officers do not affect the construction work. The priority of the government is to complete the project in time,” Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said on Wednesday.
The Government has acted in a jiffy and has lodged FIRs against UP State Bridge Corporation officers, engineers and contractors for negligence.
It also invoked the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984. The FIR has been lodged under sections 304 (culpable homicide), 308 (Attempt of culpable homicide) and 427 (damage of property). The FIR has been lodged on the complaint of Roadways police outpost in-charge Dhananand Tripathi.
The working of Bridge Corporation has always under cloud. The appointments are made under political influence and some departments of the Corporation are overstaffed. The corporation earned bad names when many of the bridges constructed by it developed cracks.
In 2010, the 1,087- metre Chillgahat bridge connecting Fatehpur with Bundelkhand region showed cracks within 13 days of its inauguration while in 2016, a cavity developed on Lohia bridge over the Gomti in Lucknow. Another flyover near the Polytechnic Crossing in Lucknow also developed cracks and was closed to traffic for about a year.
Insiders say that fear of an accident was all the time lurking on the minds of the local administration therefore, on February 19, the police had filed an FIR against the Project manager and the construction company alleging negligence in construction of over bridge.
Realising the Bridge Corporation was at fault, the Chief Minister during his visit to Varanasi after accident said prima facie it seems that accident was because of departmental fault.
“The departmental fault has come to fore,” the CM said cautioning that no guilty officer would be spared. “Inquiry has been ordered which will look into the technical aspect of the accident too. The committee has been asked to submit its report within 48 hours,” Mr Adityanath said.
Apart from the high-level departmental probe announced by Mr Adityanath, a magisterial inquiry has also begun. Additional District Magistrate Manoj Kumar Rai will submit his report within three days.
The flyover from Chowkaghat area was constructed during the regime of Mayawati. During the regime of Akhilesh Yadav yet another flyover was sanctioned parallel to the old one which was extended up to Lahartara. Since the BJP government came to power, pressure was being mounted on the concerned UP State Bridge Corporation for an earlier completion of the work. Just a day before accident Divisional commissioner, Varanasi Deepak Agrawal had expressed concern over the slow pace of work and instructed the engineers that the flyover should be completed by October this year.
The CM denied of any pressure of work to be done in speed on department concerned and said that the department itself set time to complete the work.
The Chief Minister air dashed to Varanasi after midnight on Wednesday and visited the tragedy site. From there, he went to meet injured in trauma center at BHU, Shiv Prasad Gupta Government Hospital in Kabirchaura and Deen Dayal Government Hospital in Oredrly Bazar and directed the officers to provide better treatment to the injured.
UNI MB SW 2101