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Crematorium roof collapse: Adityanath directs officials to invoke NSA against accused

The CM also announced an aid of Rs 10 lakh to the kin of each deceased

PTI27-08-2020_000165A

Taking note of the crematorium roof collapse incident in Ghaziabad's Murad Nagar that claimed 24 lives, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday directed officials to invoke the stringent National Security Act against the accused.  

Twenty-four people, most of them attending a funeral, were killed and 17 others injured when the roof of a shelter at the cremation ground in Murad Nagar collapsed on Sunday.

In a statement issued, the UP government said, "Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed that the National Security Act be slapped against the accused persons. He also directed that loss of public money during the construction work be recovered from the contractor and engineers."

The CM also announced an aid of Rs 10 lakh to the kin of each deceased. The statement said the chief minister ordered to recover the loss to the state exchequer and the amount of government compensation paid to the bereaved families from the erring engineer and contractor.

He warned that in case the construction quality was found to be sub-standard anywhere in the state, district magistrates and divisional commissioner will face the music, along with contractors and engineers.

Adityanath said a task force has already been constituted to check the quality of construction works in every district.

The task force has been asked to conduct surprise checks to ascertain the quality of all projects exceeding Rs 50 lakh.

Meanwhile, police held two contractors, taking the number of arrests in the case to five. One of them alleged that he had paid Rs 16 lakhs to an official, who is also in custody.

Contractor Ajay Tyagi, who went into hiding after the incident, was nabbed on Monday night near the Ganga Canal bridge of Sathedi village by a joint team of Murad Nagar and Niwari police, officials said.

Sanjay Garg, owner of AS Construction Company, was arrested on the basis of Tyagi's statement.

The Ghaziabad police had on Monday arrested Murad Nagar Nagar Palika Executive Officer Niharika Singh, Junior Engineer Chandra Pal and Supervisor Ashish as they were involved in the tender process for building the structure. They were sent to a 14-day judicial custody. 

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