A week after a tragic incident in Bengaluru where seven people lost their lives due to the collapse of a portion of the boundary wall of Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital, the remaining wall remains untouched. Traffic continues to ply alongside the standing section, while debris from the collapsed portion still lies where it fell. Bags of sand have been placed at the collapsed section as a temporary retaining structure.
Inquiry Committee and Lokayukta Involvement
The state government constituted an inquiry committee headed by a retired PWD chief engineer, with a deadline to submit a report by Thursday. However, according to sources, the report is delayed and is now expected by Monday. The Lokayukta also took suo motu cognisance of the case and formed a special team that visited the spot earlier this week.
Responsibility Shifted to Hospital
Washing its hands of any responsibility, Bengaluru Central City Corporation officials stated that it is the hospital's duty to examine, repair, and rebuild the wall. The 25-metre-long stretch of the compound wall that collapsed last week was located near the hospital's postmortem centre and morgue. Even as a few barricades have been placed along the damaged portion, the footpath next to the remaining section of the wall remains accessible to pedestrians, leaving them at risk.
Additionally, the city's central corporation has written to the director of Atal Bihari Vajpayee Medical College and Research Institute, urging institute officials to order engineers to demolish the dilapidated wall and rebuild it.
Corporation's Stance on Demolition
According to the central corporation's chief engineer, Vijay Kumar Haridas, such walls are demolished only in "extreme" cases. "Mostly it is building owners that attend to dilapidated walls," he said. Haridas also mentioned that a suspension notice had been issued to the executive engineer of the corporation's Shivajinagar division.
