Muradnagar roof collapse: Civic body had no full time junior engineer for over a year

Ghaziabad: For the past one-and-a-half years, the Muradnagar Nagar Palika has had no full time junior engineer (JE – civil), despite one post officially allotted to the local body

Ghaziabad: For the past one-and-a-half years, the Muradnagar Nagar Palika has had no full time junior engineer (JE – civil), despite one post officially allotted to the local body. It is learnt that one of the arrested suspects, junior engineer CP Singh, who was arrested by the police after the roof collapse in Muradnagar, was in fact posted with the Modinagar Nagar Palika and was holding an additional charge of JE-civil at Muradnagar.

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On January 3, a roof collapse at the Ukhlarsi cremation ground led to 24 deaths and about a dozen people being injured. An initial report in connection with the incident had found “sub-standard” construction-material and “design issues” had allegedly led to the roof collapse.

It has been learnt from sources that the structure which collapsed was probably erected in the last quarter of 2020, while the junior engineer who had the additional charge at Muradnagar retired on September 30, 2020.

Thereafter, no engineer was posted to look after the ongoing work.

“The JE retired in September/October. He was on an additional charge at Muradnagar. We have one post of JE sanctioned. The previous full time JE had been transferred about one-and-a-half years ago. After the current JE with additional charge retired, we have had no JE with the Palika till date. The shelter was being constructed as part of beautification work and the JE was solely responsible to look after the quality checks. The work was under construction,” said Vikas Teotia, the chairperson of the Muradnagar Nagar Palika, adding that the JE or the contractor should have barricaded the construction area.

“The inspections are done by officers of Uttar Pradesh Public Works Department (UP PWD) and a technical audit committee (TAC) as well. On the basis of overall reports by engineers, the executive-officer of the Palika gives a go ahead for payments,” he added.

The officials of the UP PWD, however, said that their work was only limited to ascertaining whether the structures were present at the site or not.

“The JE attached to Muradnagar retired on September 30, 2020 and thereafter no engineer has been posted with the Palika. The work of the PWD engineer is only limited to verify whether the structures are present at the ground level or not. One of our assistant engineers inspected the site in March and July, and the structure which collapsed was not present at the site then,” said Manish Verma, executive engineer of the UP PWD, adding that the JE (civil) of the Muradnagar Nagar Palika was entrusted with the responsibility to ensure that standards, specifications and quality is maintained.

He said that a district-level technical audit committee (TAC), formed by the district magistrate, comprising engineers from PWD and the rural engineering department, had also visited the cremation ground site for inspection of structures on August 17.

“As part of the TAC, we inspected the boundary wall, platform, tiles, store, toilets, etc., and saw that construction works were there at the site. But the structure which collapsed was not present at the site till August 17. The TAC inspects whether the structure is present at site or not and goes for inspections when local bodies call them for the same,” Verma added.

The investigation of the roof collapse incident has now been entrusted to a special investigation team (SIT) which arrived at Ghaziabad on Friday and will also be probing angles of bribery, as alleged by contractor Ajay Tyagi.

Sources said that the structure was about 25 metres in length and 5.5 metres in width, and the investigators should probe if its measurements were included in the original estimate of work allotted to the contractor or not.

“This means that it is to be probed whether the structure was part of the work assigned or was it getting constructed additionally,” the source added.

It is also learnt that there were attempts by the district administration officials to give additional charge of Muradnagar to the JE of Khoda Nagar Palika, but it did not materialise, sources from Khoda Nagar Pallika confirmed.

Like Muradnagar, Khoda Palika also has one post which is duly allotted to a full time JE. The Modinagar and Loni Palikas have two sanctioned posts for JE (civil).

When contacted, district magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey said: “The incident is taken up for investigation by an SIT. It is up to them to take up any required investigation.”

Aditya Prajapati, the sub divisional magistrate of Modinagar, who the district magistrate said is looking after the work of the executive-officer of Muradnagar Nagar Palika, did not respond to repeated calls for his comments over the issue.