Flyover collapse: Corpn MD shunted out
LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday shunted out UP State Bridge Corporation Managing Director Rajan Mittal in the wake of the Varanasi flyover collapse, which killed at least 15 people earlier this week.
Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Maurya, who is also the minister for Public Works Department (PWD), said in a tweet that Mittal has been relieved from the post of MD with immediate effect.
The minister said J K Srivastav, Chief Engineer (Externally Aided Projects) in UP PWD, has been posted as the new MD of the government-run corporation which was building the flyover. A portion of the flyover coming up in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency collapsed on Tuesday, crushing a mini bus, cars and two-wheelers.
Officials initially said 18 people were killed, but the toll was revised to 15 later.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had constituted a threemember committee to probe the accident and submit its report within 48 hours.
The UP State Bridge Corporation was constructing the 2,261-metre flyover at a cost of Rs 129 crore. The span which fell was laid about three months ago. The government had immediately suspended four officials of the corporation looking after the work in Varanasi. The police also registered an FIR against the corporation.
The corporation, which once earned kudos for bagging projects not only in other states but also in Iraq, Yemen and Nepal, had been receiving flak recently, a senior PWD official said. In 2010, the 1,087- metre Chillgahat bridge connecting Fatehpur with Bundelkhand region, built at a cost of Rs 650 crore, showed cracks within 13 days of its inauguration, he recalled.in 2016, a cavity developed on Lohia bridge over the Gomti in Lucknow. Another flyover near the Polytechnic Crossing also developed cracks and was closed to traffic for about a year, he said.
Rajan Mittal, was removed from his post during the term of the Akhilesh Yadav government following complaints. But he was reinstated when the BJP government came to power last year. NEW DELHI: The CBI on Thursday arrested two subinspectors of the Uttar Pradesh Police in connection with the reported death of the father of a minor girl, who was allegedly raped by BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Senger at Unnao, in judicial custody.
Sub Inspector Ashok Singh Bhadauriya, the then Station Officer and Sub Inspector Kamta Prasad Singh--both of Police Station Makhi in Unnao district have been arrested in the case, officials said.
The duo is at present under suspension.
The accused will be produced before the competent court tomorrow, they said.
The two have been arrested over allegations of criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence, the officials said.
The rape victim had alleged that she was raped by the MLA at his residence on June 4, 2017 where she had gone with a relative seeking a job.
The victim’s father was booked by the police under the Arms Act on April 3 this year and put in jail on April 5.
Frustrated with the alleged inaction and coercion from powerful people, the victim attempted self immolation in front of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Aditynath’s residence on April 8. The next day, her father died in jail, with the postmortem report mentioning serious injuries on his body.