Ghaziabad: Three civic officials were arrested on Monday over the collapse of a crematorium roof that claimed 25 lives as tension spiralled in the area with the families of the victims blocking the Delhi-Meerut highway by placing two bodies on the road to press for their demand for higher compensation.
They also demanded a government job for each of the grieving family as officials tried to pursue them to lift the blockade.
Superintendent of Police (Rural) Iraj Raja said that Muradnagar Nagar Palika Executive Officer Niharika Singh, Junior Engineer Chandra Pal and Supervisor Ashish were arrested this morning.
Police teams are also conducting raids at possible hideouts of contractor Ajay Tyagi to arrest him, Raja said.
Speaking to ETV Bharat, AK Singh, former chairman of state PWD department, said that quality of construction works is continuously decreasing and if the quality is checked after construction, then such incidents may not happen.
The quality of the construction work was not up to the mark as it should have been and the soil testing before the construction work was also not done. The overall lacklustre work resulted in a deadly accident," he added.
The SSP has also announced a cash reward of Rs 25,000 for the arrest of absconding contractor Ajay Tyagi.
It is pertinent to mention here that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has announced Rs 2 lakh as financial relief for the families of each man killed.
Twenty-five people, most of them attending a funeral, were killed and 17 others injured when the roof of a shelter at a cremation ground in Muradnagar here collapsed on Sunday.
Officials said construction work, estimated to cost around Rs 55 crore, on the sheltered corridor was started two months ago and it was opened for public nearly 15 days ago.
(With inputs from PTI)
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