Uttar Pradesh news, Suspension of officials, Ayodhya, temple dispute,
The chief priest of Ram temple said the roof of the sanctum sanctorum of the temple was leaking
Uttar Pradesh has suspended six officials from different departments after potholes appeared on the newly-constructed Ram Path leading to the Ayodhya Ram temple.
The Uttar Pradesh government has suspended six civic agency officials for gross negligence after several stretches of the newly-constructed Ram Path in Ayodhya caved in and witnessed waterlogging. Repair work has been carried out on the stretch, the officials said.
The suspended officials include Dhruv Agarwal (executive engineer), Anuj Deshwal (assistant engineer) and Prabhat Pandey (junior engineer) from the Public Works Department (PWD) and Anand Kumar Dubey (executive engineer), Rajendra Kumar Yadav (assistant engineer) and Mohd. Shahid (junior engineer) from the Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam.
Around 15 lanes and roads along the Ram Path were flooded following rains on June 23 and 25. Even houses along the road were submerged in water. Parts of the 14-km-long road also collapsed at over a dozen places.
Agarwal and Deshwal were suspended on Friday on the orders of Special Secretary Vinod Kumar. Pandey’s suspension order was issued by PWD Chief Engineer (Development) V.K. Senori Vastav.
Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam CEO Rakesh Kumar Mishra issued the orders suspending the three engineers. The state government also issued a notice to Ahmedabad-based contractor Bhuvan Infracom Pvt Ltd in connection with the matter.
The PWD office order said the upper layer of the Ram Path was damaged soon after construction, which shows negligence in the work done under the top priority of the Uttar Pradesh government and damages the image of the state among the common people. PWD Principal Secretary Ajay Chauhan said a fresh investigation was underway.
Ayodhya Mayor Girish Pati Tripathi told NDTV that efforts to drain out rainwater were started immediately after the waterlogging was reported.
Earlier, Acharya Satyendra Das, the chief priest of Ayodhya Ram Mandir, had said that water is leaking from the roof of the sanctum sanctorum after heavy rains and no measures have been taken to drain out the water from the premises.
However, Nripendra Mishra, chairman of the Ram Mandir Nirman Samiti, said the leakage is suspected to be due to the ongoing construction work at the temple. “I saw rainwater falling from the first floor. This is expected as the Guru Mandap is exposed to the sky as the second floor and the completion of the shikhara will cover this opening. When this work was being done on the first floor I also saw some leakage in the duct. The duct will be closed upon completion. There is no drainage in the sanctum sanctorum as all the mandaps have a measured slope to clear the water and the water in the sanctum sanctorum is absorbed manually. Also, devotees do not even perform abhishekam of the Lord. There is no design or construction problem,” he had said.
