4 engineers suspended; death toll in Ctg landslide rises to 17<\/strong>
\nFaulty construction and lack of maintenance of the wall built by the Chittagong City Corporation to protect the Batali hill caused Friday’s tragic death of 17 people living in the foothill shanties.
\n\u201cJust by looking at the wall, we can easily find some faults in its construction,\u201d said Ehsane Elahi, convener of the five-member probe committee formed by the district\u00a0administration.
\nThere should have been strong angular concrete walls to protect the outer portion of the main protection wall but there has been nothing like that, said Elahi, also the additional deputy commissioner of Chittagong.
\nHe added that a huge quantity of earth piled to support the outer face of the two-layer wall was found removed, which might have contributed to the collapse.
\nThe CCC engineers should have monitored it regularly, Elahi observed.
\nDelwar Majumder, former president of the Institute of Engineers of Bangladesh (IEB) Chittagong chapter, echoed his views.
\nHe said the earth could not be removed in a short time. Owners of the illegal slums must have removed that gradually with no resistance from the authorities.
\nProtection walls are built keeping holes at suitable distances to help discharge the rain water, he said, adding: \u201cBut, it seems, there was no such holes in the wall.\u201d
\nHowever, Gias Uddin, contractor of the portion that collapsed, claimed they built the wall as per the condition given by the CCC engineers.
\nHe said they kept holes during the construction but locals might have plugged those later.
\nThe five-member committee will place its report on Thursday, Elahi said. He recommended another investigation by an expert committee.
\nMeanwhile, the CCC temporarily suspended four of its engineers and a construction supervisor under whose guidance the 360-foot wall was built three years ago.
\nThe decision came at a meeting at the CCC chaired by Chittagong Mayor M Manjur Alam yesterday.
\nThose suspended include CCC Superintendent Engineer Mokhter Alam, Executive Engineer Abu Saleh, Assistant Engineer Rafik Uddin Siddique and Sub Assistant Engineer Ejajul Haider, CCC’s Public Relations Officer Saifuddin Ahmed said.
\nOfficials present at the meeting, however, said they are yet to determine whether there was any technical fault in the construction of the wall or negligence on the part of those suspended.
\nA seven-member committee led by SM Iqbal Hossain, chairman of CCC Standing Committee on Works affairs, was formed to look into the matter.
\nSources said around 300 feet of the 360-foot wall was constructed in 2008. Some 60 feet of that portion collapsed on Friday.
\nRESCUE OPERATION ENDS
\nThe nearly 25-hour rescue operation ended around 8:00am yesterday with the recovery of the body of Razia Begum, 40. As of Friday, the death toll was 16.
\nMore than 20 houses were ravaged when a portion of the Batali hill protection wall along with a huge chunk of earth fell on the shanties at the foot of the hill around 6:00am on Friday.
\n\u201cThe district administration stopped the rescue effort as locals have no more claims of missing people,\u201d said Jashim Uddin, deputy assistant director of Fire Service and Civil Defence.
\nQuoting locals, The Daily Star on Saturday reported that four people — Selim, his wife Fatema and their two children Sagor and Shirin — were missing.
\nAsked about this, Jashim said a woman told him about Selim and his family members but none of the neighbouring dwellers claimed about their being missing.
\nEleven bodies were buried by the relatives and the city corporation and the district administration buried the six others at the CCC graveyard at Bayezid Bostami.
\nThe administration donated Tk 10,000 each for the deceased and Tk 5,000 each to two injured.<\/p>\n

-With The Daily Star<\/span> input<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

4 engineers suspended; death toll in Ctg landslide rises to 17 Faulty construction and lack of maintenance of the wall built by the Chittagong City Corporation to protect the Batali hill caused Friday’s tragic death of 17 people living in the foothill shanties. \u201cJust by looking at the wall, we can easily find some faults … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[256,4539,4581,4582],"yoast_head":"\n