Kanpur building collapse: 3 engineers and officer on special duty suspended by UP govt

Three engineers and Officer on Special Duty (OSD) KDA were suspended on Saturday in the under-construction building collapse in Kanpur. In the tragedy, eight labourers were killed, as rescue operations continued for the fourth day even as police failed to nab the accused, including an SP leader who owned the structure.

“The Uttar Pradesh government has suspended assistant engineer Yogesh Kumar, executive engineer N K Bhatia and junior engineer Sanjay Gupta for negligence and OSD D D Verma,” Kanpur Development Authority (KDA) vice-chairperson Jaishree Bhoj said.

Since the incident, on February 1, nine officers have been suspended. I had suspended five supervisors on February 2 and had recommended the suspension of three engineers to the state government on the same day, Bhoj said.

She said a two-member team has begun its probe into the incident in which top floors of the seven-storey under-construction building at KDA colony Jajmua collapsed.

Eight labourers were killed after they were buried under debris and 18 injured in the incident.

Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Kanpur, Dr Ramayan Prasad said the death toll in the incident has not increased.

“Three out of the 18 labourers who were injured in the collapse have been discharged while two of the remaining 15 are still in critical condition,” he said.

A source said the absconding SP leader, Mehtab Alam, is likely to surrender in court as his lawyers have filed a surrender application.

“A manhunt has been launched to nab Alam and the contractor of the building,” IG (Kanpur Range) Zaki Ahmad said, adding the NDRF is continuing rescue work, however, the chances of finding any survivor is bleak now.

A team of doctors and an ambulance are on standby in case any survivor is pulled out from the debris, the CMO said.