Mall manager held for accident

KOLKATA: Police arrested the manager of South City Mall on Monday, a day after one person plunged to his death at the mall when a high ladder collapsed. Police said there were serious lapses in safety measures and that led to the disaster.
Manager Deep Biswas has been charged under sections 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) and 114 (abetment) of IPC."The mall authorities claimed that they outsourced the job to MD Agency and the employees were hired by them. We asked for the contract papers or the work order, but they are yet to provide us with those. We are also looking for Rafiqul Islam, proprietor of the company," said DCP (Jadavpur) Santosh Pandey.
The workers were putting up decorations when the accident took place. On whether safety norms had been followed during the work, Pandey said: "There were serious lapses by the mall authorities. The workers had no safety belt and there was no net. Had they followed the rules, the person would not have died. Though they said they had outsourced the job, the high ladder belongs to the mall. We are looking into all the aspects of the case."
Three persons were injured in the accident too. They were shifted to AMRI Hospital and their condition is reported to be stable. According to hospital authorities, two of them have minor fractures on their legs but the condition of the third person is relatively critical because he has a fracture in his spinal chord. Mall authorities, however, assured that even if the three lose their working ability, they will be absorbed.
The state labour department sent a team to assess the extent to which labour laws were flouted by the company where the workers were employed. "This has been an eye opener for us. There might be other cases too where safety measures for workers are being flouted," said labour minister Purnendu Basu.
The department will now depute officials who will randomly visit shopping malls to check whether safety norms are being followed. "Our officials will make regular visits and if we find any lapse, the company will be penalized first. There are provisions for taking legal action against the errant companies, too," Basu said. The department will also provide death benefit to the worker's family.
Disaster management minister Javed Khan said it was "sheer negligence" and "ignorance". "Had they used a manually-operated hydraulic ladder, the accident would not have occurred. People should realize this and they should act responsibly," he said.
Civil engineer Bikramjit Ball Niyogi agreed that safety measures had not been followed. "There are certain constructional norms that everyone needs to follow. The nature of the accident shows that safety codes had not been followed and it is a penal offence," he said.