E-Paper
9 hurt as ?ceiling? caves in
PANIC GRIPPED Aminabad Intermediate College campus and its vicinity after the ceiling mould caved in, injuring nine labourers on Tuesday morning. They included two women and a one-year-old girl. Three of the critically injured victims were undergoing treatment at the Balrampur Hospital while others were sent home after medical aid. Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) was carrying out the construction on the college premises to get a platform covered with pillars and ceiling.
LMC engineers, private builder in the dock
PANIC GRIPPED Aminabad Intermediate College campus and its vicinity after the ceiling mould caved in, injuring nine labourers on Tuesday morning. They included two women and a one-year-old girl.
Three of the critically injured victims were undergoing treatment at the Balrampur Hospital while others were sent home after medical aid.
Lucknow Municipal Corporation (LMC) was carrying out the construction on the college premises to get a platform covered with pillars and ceiling.
The mason lodged a named FIR against LMC’s assistant engineer (AE) Vishnu Singh, junior engineer (JE) Malaydhar and the proprietor of Escon builders for not supervising the work and for using poor quality material in construction.
Significantly, none of the LMC officials were present at the site when the construction work was going on. Municipal commissioner Ram Bodh Verma ordered a probe into the matter and asked chief engineer SK Srivastava to visit the spot to check if norms were being followed in construction work.
The incident took place around 10.30 am when the labourers were busy working to make the structure (slab) for the ceiling. Suddenly, four pillars on which the ceiling was being constructed, collapsed following which the half-constructed structure caved in. The labourers on the site were buried under the wreckage.
Screams of the victims echoed and college staff and students rushed to the spot. Shopkeepers outside and the passers-by too ran to the site. They removed the debris and rescued the labourers.
Three of the labourers injured, identified as Siyaram-I and Siyaram-II and Lakshman, were lying unconscious and had suffered critical injuries when they were taken out of the rubble.
Six others identified as Pradip, Jiyalal, Patel, Dayawati, Nirmala and latter’s daughter Sukriti (1) too had suffered injuries. They were admitted to hospital.
The incident left college staff and other labourers agitated. The staff said the contractor was using poor material and it would have caused a major tragedy later.
Police and LMC officials rushed to the scene later. Prem Kumar, a mason working at the site, lodged an FIR at the Aminabad police station in this connection.
