Panel goes ‘soft’ on erring officials

CHANDIGARH: A committee constituted by the Managing Director of the Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation PSIEC for action against four technocrats in the building collapse case of Shital Fibres Factory Jalandhar seems to have gone soft on the said officials

Updated At : 06:57 AM Apr 04, 2018 IST

Three inquiry panels have probed the 2012 factory collapse, which claimed 23 lives. File photo

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 3

A committee, constituted by the Managing Director of the Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation (PSIEC) for action against four technocrats in the building collapse case of Shital Fibres Factory, Jalandhar, seems to have gone soft on the said officials.

In 2013, sub-divisional engineers NS Chhina and Gurmit Singh, site engineer NK Aggarwal and junior engineer Kamaljit were charge-sheeted on the basis of an inquiry by the then Commissioner, Jalandhar Division, SR Ladhar.

He had held that the officials were responsible for not taking action against alleged zoning violation at the mishap site and pointed out supervisory failure on part of the PSIEC and deputy director, factories. A departmental inquiry conducted by Amarjit Singh Katari, Additional District and Session Judge (retd), had also endorsed the findings of the commissioner.

After the inquiries by Ladhar, retired judge and Lt Gen BS Dhaliwal (retd), technical adviser to CM, the PSIEC constituted a departmental committee comprising SP Singh, chief general manager (estate), Ashwani K Gupta, chief general manager (personnel) and Ramtesh Bains, superintending engineer.

After hearing objections by the charge-sheeted officials, the committee, while disagreeing with the departmental inquiry officer Katari, has not given any clear-cut recommendations regarding putting up a dissent by the competent authority.

In its report, the committee observed: “No mala fide intention was established on part of the charge-sheeted officials, but on the other hand they acted in negligent manner for not having discharged their duties.” The committee, however, agreed with the inquiry officer on dealing zonal violations seriously.