Factory collapse, Gurdaspur firing probes shifted to Patiala

JALANDHAR: The Punjab government has entrusted two high profile inquiries - one pertaining to collapse of a factory in Jalandhar and the other regarding police firing in Gurdaspur leading to Sikh youth's death - to Patiala division commissioner S R Ladhar in place of Jalandhar division commissioner Anurag Verma. Verma has proceeded on leave for training.
Ladhar has been given additional charge of Jalandhar division also.As both the inquiries were entrusted to Anurag Verma by name, who had already done a lot of spade work, the state government issued fresh orders entrusting the probes to Ladhar as it did not want any delay in the completion of the inquiries.
Ladhar has just completed another high-profile inquiry on the sale of government land in Patiala. His report has put former Patiala deputy commissioner Vikas Garg and former Patiala division commissioner G S Grewal in the dock. Even the financial commissioner, revenue, has backed Ladhar's findings in his separate report to the chief minister. A few years back his inquiry into a shady land deal in Ludhiana had put kin of a top BJP leader of the state in the dock.
Starting the inquiry into collapse of factory owned by prominent industrialist Shital Vij on Friday, Ladhar had already got the records pertaining to it which were collected by Verma from various departments. Twentythree workers had died in the mishap and several were injured. Vij was booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
He has also summoned a meeting of officials of various departments on Saturday morning.
Apart from Vij, government officials of various departments are also in the dock as the factory which collapsed was running even without registration under the Factories Act or without getting other mandatory sanctions and clearances. The directorate of factories, labour department and Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd were not even aware that this big factory was being run until it collapsed on April 15 night.