A junior engineer (JE) and a road inspector (RI) have been placed under suspension by the State Highways Department on Wednesday on the charges of dereliction of duty for not completely removing a fallen tree near Arani town that resulted in the death of a motorist a few days ago.
Officials of State Highways said that the suspension order was issued by V. Chandran, division engineer in-charge (DE), Arani, State Highways on the advice of Minister for Public Works E.V. Velu, who represents the Tiruvannamalai Assembly constituency.
The immediate superior officer of the suspended officials, S. Chandrasekar, assistant engineer (AE), was also transferred to the department’s headquarters in Chennai, following the incident.
“Failure of the field level highways officials to completely remove the fallen tree from the stretch has cost the life of a young motorist,” said K. Sekar, a resident.
Police said that the two-lane Arani-Villupuram Main Road, which is maintained by State Highways, has trees, most of them tamarind, lining both sides of the road. Most of them are tamarind trees. Areas like Arani, Polur, Tiruvannamalai and Chetpet have been witnessing heavy downpour coupled with strong winds since last week.
On August 11, a decade-old tamarind tree on the stretch got uprooted due to strong winds and fell on the service lane, disrupting the traffic. Based on an alert from the Arani Taluk police, officials of the State Highways removed a few branches of the fallen tree. However, they did not remove it completely from the spot.
Next morning on August 12, along with his friend V. Sanjaykumar, 22, K. Siva, 23, who works in a private company in Sriperumbudur, was riding his two-wheeler on the stretch when he rammed into the fallen tree. Siva died on the spot while his friend suffered serious injuries.
Family members, relatives and residents blocked the stretch, demanding action against the officials for not removing the fallen tree. Later, the police pacified and dispersed the agitated residents.
Published - August 14, 2024 11:04 pm IST
