The alleged negligence of the Railway authorities and contractors appointed by them have taken four lives and left at least seven people severely injured in Pune. The lives were lost after a massive illegal iron hoarding collapsed in Mangalwar Peth area, near the Pune railway station, on Friday, October 5. Reportedly, six autorickshaws, three two-wheelers and one car were crushed when the structure fell on them.

The Juna Bazaar Chowk area, where the incident took place, is said to have witnessed heavy traffic throughout the day and the hoarding, unfortunately, collapsed when the commuters were waiting at the signal for it to turn green. The permissible height of the hoarding in this area was 20 feet while this hoarding was at a height of 40 feet.

Mumbai, kolkata or Pune 👇… we the people are allowing corrupt governance to endanger our lives …look at how lives were sniffed out in seconds! pic.twitter.com/x6hfoljVik

— Sucheta Dalal (@suchetadalal) October 6, 2018

Pune civic body urged the railway officials to remove the hoarding

The alleged illegal hoarding was installed by the Railways near the station. As reported by The Times of India the Pune Municipal Corporation officials repeatedly told the railways officials to remove the hoarding since 2013.

Siddharth Dhende, Deputy Mayor, Pune Municipal Corporation, told The Hindu, that “The hoarding that crashed was illicit. We had earlier urged the railway authorities to remove it. Today, without alerting municipal authorities, they attempted to remove the hoarding in a manner which proved fatal. We demand a CID investigation into this and urge the State government to give Rs 10 lakh as compensation to the kin of the deceased.”

At the time of the incident, apparently, a contractor who was appointed by the railways was dismantling the hoarding, as the original contractor who installed the hoarding failed to follow instructions to strengthen the structure and also refused to dismantle it. The workers attached ropes to the hoarding and were working to dismantle it so that it falls in the Railway premises but they lost balance and it fell on the other side of the road. Six such hoardings were being removed, and four had been dismantled in July, reported  Times Now.

Engineers of Railway arrested

Reportedly, a deputy engineer of the Railways and his assistant were arrested in connection with the incident. A case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder has been registered against them under section 304 of the Indian Penal Code. A case was also registered against the contractors who had been given the responsibility to dismantle the structure.

Pune: Police have arrested Deputy engineer of Railway and his assistant in connection with flex hoarding collapse incident in Shivaji Nagar that claimed lives of 4 people & left several injured yesterday. #Maharashtra

— ANI (@ANI) October 6, 2018

The deceased were identified as Shamrao Kasar (70), Shamrao Dhotre (48), Shivaji Pardeshi (40) and Javed Khan (40). The injured were taken to the hospital and at least five of them are said to be in critical condition.

This is certainly not the first instance of citizens paying a hefty price for negligence on the part of respective authorities. The Railway authorities had been notified about the alleged illegal hoarding for about five years now. Even as the work to remove it had begun, callousness and lack of preventive measures resulted in an accident which might have been averted otherwise. The Logical Indian urges the authorities to take stringent actions against those who are found to be guilty.

Also Read: Tamil Nadu: Techie Crashes Into An Illegal Political Hoarding, Dies After Getting Run Over By Truck