Corporation blacklists contractor’s firm, stops pending payments

The Ghaziabad municipal corporation on Wednesday blacklisted contractor Ajay Tyagi who was responsible for the construction of the Muradnagar crematorium that collapsed

The Ghaziabad municipal corporation on Wednesday blacklisted contractor Ajay Tyagi who was responsible for the construction of the Muradnagar crematorium that collapsed and killed 24 people on Sunday.

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This comes a day after police said Tyagi had revealed to them during questioning that he had bribed municipal corporation for the work and also used poor quality materials to cut costs.

Corporation officials said that Tyagi was involved in 30 other civic works -- from construction of drains, laying of interlocking tiles, revamping roads, constructing boundary walls, among others. These were allotted during the last two years and funded by the corporation, as well as other sources marked for development.

These works in were spread across different wards of Kavi Nagar, Mohan Nagar, City, Vasundhara and Vijay Nagar zones. The official sources also said that he quoted the tender prices to the tune of 7.77% to 27.31% below the tender amount to bag the contracts.

“We have blacklisted his firm and also stopped pending payments to other projects that he had taken up. He had been doing the works for past 10 years and now the ongoing works will be allotted to the firm that had quoted the next lowest price in the bid,” said M S Tanwar, municipal-commissioner.

On Wednesday, the administration officials also sealed the Ukhlarsi cremation ground where the incident had taken place and also sealed important files of the Muradnagar Nagar Palika.

“The cremation ground has been sealed and only a temporary platform for cremation has been left out. It will have a separate entry for people. The rest of the portion has been sealed after a team of senior engineers from GDA and corporation had inspected the site. They have also taken up samples of the debris for testing,” said Aditya Prajapati, sub divisional magistrate (Modinagar). “We have also sealed important files of the Nagar Palika which were related to contract works and accounts. This has been done so that they do not get tampered or damaged by anyone. These filed will now be part of ongoing investigation into the incident.”

On Wednesday, the committee comprising of chief engineers of GDA, corporation and UP Rajkiya Nirman Nigam inspected the cremation ground and have recommended testing from an expert agency.

“The expert agency could be any IIT or any other renowned agency which will check up the load bearing capacity, quality of material among other factors. We have not been able to get the design of the structure,” said VN Singh, chief engineer of GDA.

District magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey said that the expert agency will be roped in at the earliest.