Varanasi tragedy: Builder, police blame each other

PriyankaSingh@timesgroup.com

Lucknow: 17.05.2018

A day after the Varanasi flyover collapse, the UP State Bridge Corporation Limited (UPSBCL) and Varanasi traffic police accused each other of being responsible for the tragedy.

While UPSBCL claimed on Wednesday that it had written several letters to traffic police seeking assistance, traffic cops said they provided all necessary help whenever asked and had even lodged an FIR against the UPSBCL project manager.

The traffic police said UPSBCL did not follow safety norms throughout the ongoing construction but the latter accused the police of not supporting them by managing traffic. UPSBCL MD Rajan Mittal said on Wednesday his department had cautioned about the chances of a mishap and sought removal of vendors, fruit-sellers and carts from the service lane but got no help.

SP (traffic) S P Rawat strongly refuted Mittal’s claims and said that traffic police had cleared encroachments below the flyover four times and had pictures of the drive as proof.

Rawat said UPSBCL should have constructed concrete service lanes on both sides of the flyover before construction but didn’t do so.

For the full story, log on to www.timesofindia.com 



PASSING THE BUCK