UP govt seeks names of LDA officials responsible for illegal construction

LUCKNOW : The Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) officials, who had turned a blind eye to illegal constructions of two hotels in Charbagh, where fire broke out on June 19, 2018, are under scanner of the state government.

In the incident, seven persons had lost their lives raising a question on development authority under whose watchful eyes these two hotels—SSJ International and Viraat International—were constructed.

A joint report prepared on the incident by the then LDA vice chairman Prabhu N Singh and then additional director general of police (Lucknow zone) Rajeev Krishna has not been accepted by the state government.

The report had failed to pinpoint the officials responsible for the illegal construction of the two hotels.

So, the state government has sought a report from the LDA with names of all those engineers, junior engineers and other officials who were incharge of zone 6 under which Charbagh comes. The development authority has divided Lucknow city into seven zones.

Deepak Kumar, principal secretary (housing), has written a letter to the LDA directing it to identify all those officials who are responsible for illegal construction of the two hotels.

According to LDA officials, names of around 30 officials, who were incharge of zone-6 (where Charbagh falls) when the two hotels were illegally constructed, have come to the fore.

“The LDA has to provide details of all officials to the state government who were incharge of zone-6 from 2010 till the end of 2018,” said a senior LDA official.

The development authority has also decided to completely demolish Hotel Viraat from January 12. It was constructed after changing land use and its map was not approved by the development authority.