Garden Reach building collapse: KMC revokes suspension of three engineers
Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has withdrawn suspension of its three engineers who were suspended following the collapse of an unauthorised construction at Garden Reach while the civic body will submit its departmental enquiry report in court.
As per notices issued by the municipal commissioner, the suspension of the three engineers concerned — Debabrata Ghosh, Subham Bhattacharya and Debaditya Paul — have been withdrawn. All three were allowed to join their duties. The disciplinary proceedings will be concluded in due course as per law.
The notice said that all three had appealed to allow them to join duties. The reason for withdrawal of suspension said that since findings/report in the proceedings have already been submitted there is hardly any scope for them to influence the inquiry proceedings. However, their joining back of duties will also be subject to the order of the court, if any. Further, departmental action on the basis of the findings, if any, will be decided in terms of law.
It was learnt that there were two simultaneous investigations conducted, one by the KMC and the other by the police. The engineers were suspended to ensure they don’t influence the inquiries. There were no court orders instructing the civic body either to suspend or not suspend the three, said KMC sources.
The under construction building at the Garden Reach’s Azhar Mollah Bagan area had killed about 12 persons last year. The Building department of KMC had said they were in the dark regarding the construction since no sanction was sought for the same.
Mayor Firhad Hakim had said that executive engineers were instructed that they must file an FIR with the police once it comes to their notice that an illegal construction is afoot. In case no action is taken after that then the director general of the building department needs to be informed by the engineer concerned so the matter can be further taken up with the municipal commissioner and thereafter with the commissioner of Kolkata Police.
