Police await sanction to file charge-sheet against officials

Ambika Sharma

Solan, December 7

The Special Investigating Team (SIT) of the police is awaiting the prosecution sanction from the authorities to file a charge-sheet against six officials of the local Municipal Committee and Irrigation and Public Health (IPH) Department for their inability to check the outbreak of jaundice in Solan and its surrounding areas.

More than 700 people had contracted jaundice while one person lost his life earlier this year.

DSP Amit Sharma, who is heading SIT, said the investigations had been completed and they had sought the sanction from the authorities for filing the charge-sheet in the court.

He confirmed that two officials of the MC and four from the IPH Department had been found negligent in containing the disease and were booked under Sections 269, 336 and 304-A of the IPC for endangering the personal safety and life of the people and causing death by negligence.

An assistant engineer (AE) and a junior engineer (JE) of the MC and two AEs and as many JEs of the IPH Department had been found guilty for the disease which had spread its tentacles in November last year.

The prosecution sanction was awaited from the Secretary, Urban Development, for the two MC officials while the Superintending Engineer of the IPH Department was supposed to accord this permission for action against IPH Department officials.

The SIT had been constituted on the directions of the high court to probe the negligence of officials who had failed to ensure the supply of clean drinking water to the residents. More than 700 cases of jaundice had surfaced in the area. Though names of senior officials of the MC and the IPH Department too had surfaced, they were not named as accused.

Reports of water samples lifted by the IPH Department as well as health officials form a crucial part of the evidence which establish the laxity of the officials.