JOIN USIn his report, Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde termed the acts of six persons “nothing less than criminal negligence” and revealed that the wall was constructed violating the norms of the Bureau of Indian Standards.
He directed the BBMP to initiate disciplinary action against the suspects immediately.
The six tainted persons include H B Chidanandaiah, executive engineer-in charge; TP Padmanabha, executive engineer; C Ashwathanarayana Reddy, assistant executive engineer; K C Satish, assistant engineer, road widening division-4; Munirathna, class 1 contractor and Ramachandra Constructions (Humesh Kumar).
Hegde also instructed the BBMP to submit action taken report within three months. The Lokayukta report states: “Any person with minimum common sense could assess that the wall constructed in such an unscientific manner with sub-standard work and poor quality of mortar would collapse any time.”
It observed that those who are responsible for the construction and supervision of the wall would certainly know that the wall built in such a manner would collapse any moment and that “it would endanger the life or limb of persons who are to pass by the side of the wall which abuts the important airport road.”
Had the principles of the code of practice prescribed by the Bureau of Indian Standards, which is mandatory, were followed by the executive officers and persons responsible for the construction of the wall, this tragedy would not have occurred.
There is gross misconduct on the part of the public servants concerned in the construction of such poor quality wall, the Lokayukta report said. Sanjana Singh was killed on the spot when a BBMP compound wall crashed on her on Bellary Road on June 1.