Patnagarh: In a significant development, the Odisha Lokayukta Friday ordered criminal proceedings against six persons including four government officials for their negligence which led to the collapse of a portion of the bridge across River Suktel in Bolangir April 29, 2020.
Two labourers died on the spot, while two others suffered serious injuries due to the collapse of the deflected span of the bridge.
Taking suo motu cognisance of the issue, the Lokayukta sought explanations from the Executive Engineer, Rural Works Division Bolangir and the managing director of Ram Kumar Agarwal Engineers Pvt. Ltd.
The Lokayukta also asked the Rural Development Minister to present his views on the issue.
Subsequently, the Lokayukta after scrutinising the reports of authorities asked Vigilance sleuths to conduct a probe into the alleged corruption behind the substandard construction of the bridge.
“During investigation, the technical team of Vigilance found that non-branded cement and steel were used in the construction of the bridge and that too without following the operating procedure for execution of work.
The technical team even discovered that plastering had been done at a number of places along the length of the junction between soffit slabs and webs on both sides of all the slabs in order to hide the poor and porous nature of the concrete,” revealed the order.
The Lokayukta asked its prosecution wing to initiate action against Sudhansu Sekhar Mohapatra, Executive Engineer, Tapan Kumar Behera, Asst. Executive Engineer, Ranjit Kumar Bag, JE, Braja Bhushan Kumar, Divisional Accounts Officer, Sanjay Kumar Agarwal, director of the firm and Ginesh Nair, the project manager.
PNN