Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Dec 17: Acting tough on the negligence of Jammu and Kashmir Project Construction Corporation (JKPCC) after collapse of a part of historic Legislature complex and cracks in other portions of the building on the intervening night of December 10 and 11, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who holds the charge of Works Department, today ordered attachment of entire top brass of the construction company including its Managing Director and decided to hold a high level probe into the matter for further stringent action in the negligence, which would act as deterrent for the officials in future.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the Chief Minister’s decision to attach entire top brass of the JKPCC, which had been assigned the task of construction of new multi-storey Legislature complex in adjacent to the existing building of Legislative Assembly and Council, came after preliminary findings of a Committee set up by him and expert opinion, which pointed out that it was a clear case of negligence on the part of the construction agency, which failed to take preventive measures to protect the historic and more than century old Legislature complex, leading to collapse of some of its part and leading to cracks in other portion of the building raising doubts over holding of budget session of the Assembly in the same building.
Sources said the attachment of senior officers of the JKPCC was only tip of the iceberg and the Chief Minister has decided to further set up a high level committee of Government officers and engineers to go further into the reasons leading to collapse of the portion of historic building and cracks in other parts.
“On the basis of further in-depth enquiry, which is being ordered soon, the Government would take stringent action against all those officials found guilty of negligence. The action would act as a deterrent for all other officials and engineers engaged in the construction activity to ensure that such kind of negligence was not repeated in future’’, sources said.
They added that a decision on registration of a criminal case with the police against the erring officials would be taken on the basis of report of the high-level enquiry committee, which is being set up shortly. The criminal case can be registered even now but the Government has decided to wait for report of the further enquiry.
The JKPCC officials, who have been attached to the Works Department, were MM Gupta, Managing Director, Suresh Reki, Executive Engineer, Sayeed Naeem, General Manager, Vinod Gupta, Assistant Executive Engineer, Anupam Wangroo, Deputy Manager, who was Incharge of supervision of construction work and all other officials, who were associated with the construction work.
Sources said interim report of the panel and expert opinion obtained by the Government on collapse of a portion and cracks in the Legislature complex revealed clear negligence on part of the construction agency and the officials associated with the work. It said the construction agency was supposed to take all measures before starting work on the new Legislature complex to ensure protection of the existing historic building, which had been constructed in 1902 on the arrive of Prince of Wales.
The Chief Minister had reviewed development work of new Legislature Complex on December 11 and was briefed by the top brass of the JKPCC and other officials that work was going on smooth and that the existing complex was safe. However, it was on the same night that part of the existing Legislature complex collapsed and some of the portion developed cracks.
The enquiry committee has noted that it was nothing but “sheer negligence’’ on the part of engineers of the JKPCC officials, who failed to negotiate that such a vast digging adjacent to more than century old complex, could prove disastrous and leading to damage to it.
The committee had come to conclusion that there was “definite negligence’’ on the part of construction agency, which led to their attachment.
Sources, however, maintained that mere attachment can’t be the punishment for such a big dereliction of duty on the part of engineers and that was the reason that the Government has decided to set up another high level committee of bureaucrats and engineers to go into in-depth details of the collapse of portion of the complex and cracks in other areas.
“The committee would be announced shortly and, on the basis of its recommendations, further action would be taken against the erring officials. The Government would nominate technical experts into the committee to go into the reasons of the collapse/cracks in the building and pinpoint responsibility’’, sources said, adding that the further action would serve as deterrent for the engineers and other staff to ensure that such negligence and dereliction of duty wouldn’t be tolerated in any case.
The sources pointed out that it would have been a catastrophe had the budget session of Legislature in progress as almost entire Cabinet including the Chief Minister, Presiding Officers, legislators, media corps and other VIPs remain present in the complex along with their staff.
They pointed out that the office chambers of the Chief Minister, the Deputy Chief Minister and the Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, which had suffered damage or developed cracks, have been rendered unsafe and even if the budget session was held in the same building, if declared safe by the experts, the authorities had to find out new chambers for the CM and his two Cabinet colleagues.
The Government is still in a quandary on whether the budget session would be held in the same Legislature building after repairing the damage and the cracks or it would go for alternate places. A decision was expected on the next couple of days after the expert opinion, sources said.
They added that negligence of the engineers has not only caused damage to the Legislature complex but also created problems for the Government in holding budget session of the Legislature.
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