MC officials scurry to get rat holes filled

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, May 21

The MC staff have been on their toes since a retaining wall of the Gill Chowk flyover collapsed last week. A team of the Municipal Corporation on Monday inspected other flyovers and directed the staff concerned to fill the holes made by rats. The team also instructed the officials to repair the portion around the pile cap of the Gill Chowk flyover.

The MC had blamed rats for the collapse of Gill Chowk flyover wall.

The civic body officials inspected the bus stand flyover near the scooter market and the Lakkar Bridge today. They also visited the Gill Chowk flyover where repair of the collapsed wall was going on.

Superintending Engineer Dharam Singh said they found rat holes and instructed the officials concerned to fill them. He said a portion around the pile cap of the flyover also needed repair.

The officials also visited a garbage dump under Lakkar Bridge (railway overbridge) near the old court. Dharam Singh said the problem of rats also existed at the railway overbridge. The staff had been asked to take necessary steps, he said.

A group of private engineers had earlier raised questions over the construction of the Gill Chowk flyover. They had claimed that the retaining wall of the Gill Chowk flyover collapsed not due to the damage done by the rats feeding on a garbage dump but because of “poor workmanship at the time of construction of flyover”.

Rat protest by Morcha

Ludhiana: Members of the Hindu Shakti Morcha registered their protest against the Gill Chowk flyover wall collapse by bringing rats to the Zone D office, Sarabha Nagar, on Monday. However, they were not allowed to carry rats, kept in a cage, into the Municipal Commissioner’s office. Rohit Sahni of the Hindu Shakti Morcha said they wanted the MC authorities not to let erring officers, who have put the entire blame on rats, off. He said the MC authorities were misguiding the public by giving clean chit to the “erring” officials. They also submitted a memorandum to Municipal Commissioner Jaskiran Singh. TNS