Cave-in: They failed to supervise work

GURGAON: Even as the capital grapples with cases of civic negligence, its satellite town, Gurgaon, has shown the way how to fix accountability on erring government officials. Nearly three months after a major road caved in near the Signature Towers in Sector 29, off Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway, and a motorist was seriously injured, two officials were arrested on Wednesday on the charges of negligence.
According to the police, sub divisional officer B D Yadav and junior engineer Sanjeev Kumar, both from Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), were sent to 14-day judicial custody on Thursday.
"Senior HUDA officials told us that the road caved in as sewer lines were being laid in the area. The two were booked for failing to supervise the construction work properly,'' said Jagdish Prasad, SHO, Sector 29 police station.
On May 29 this year, a Hyundai hatchback and a truck had got trapped in the 40-feet wide pit. Though both had a lucky escape, the driver of the car, Ashutosh Chaturvedi, a resident of Surya Vihar, suffered injuries on his face, head and hands. The right hand of the victim, a stock broker, was also fractured in the incident. On the basis of his complaint, an FIR was lodged under sections 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 337 (causing hurt by endangering life or personal safety of others) of IPC and 13 1B of Prevention of Corruption Act against the two officials.
Police officials added that both the lanes had caved in. Prasad said that within minutes of the first cave-in, the other lane also gave away when a truck crossed the stretch. The truck driver, however, escaped without any injuries.
"When we reached the spot 15 minutes later, we found Ashutosh lying in the pit unconscious. We pulled him out and rushed him to a nearby hospital,'' said Prasad, adding that the car was later taken out with the help of a crane.
HUDA officials claimed that the accident occurred because of leakage in an underground sewer line. "The leakage created an empty space beneath the road which might have led to the accident. This can be a result of sub-standard quality material used in the construction,'' he added.