The roof of a newly built block at a government college, the Manipur College, collapsed on Saturday. This happened almost immediately after a similar incident at an exclusive ward of RIMS Hospital, the premier hospital of Manipur, where the occupant patient was injured and her surgery was deferred.
The magnitude of the damages in both instances is too lackluster to warrant an adverse judgement let alone stir up a public outcry, as evident from the reaction of the desensitized public and the authorities that matters. Nonetheless, the cases have yet again casted doubts on the sincerity and ability of the respective departments and our contractors to provide satisfactory products while carrying out public undertakings.
We are already plagued by a historical lack of accountability and a general complacency that have surfaced conspicuously in such time of misfortunes. It is worrying if the absence of activities marking condemnation or regrets over the bizarre incidents is an indicator of the manner in which the negligent actions will be treated by the administration.
From the outside, the failures looked avoidable if professional attention and guidance had been observed. The first case was apparently a result of construction flaw and if portion of a new building disintegrates so quickly then questions should inevitably be raised whether it was constructed in a workman like manner and whether the building was indeed meant to be fit for its intended purpose. At the same time, the RIMS incident can be attributed to the engineering section overlooking the degradation taking place due to aging and urgent want of renovation.
In both cases, the contractors or sub-contractors in charge of construction works had pledged statutory warranty that the work will be completed according to the standards. If there was any defect observed in the execution of the works, then the contractors should be held strictly liable, at least until it is proven whether the suppliers or engineers or manufactures of another party is at fault. It will be unwise to bear sub-standard construction and let the responsible persons escape without penalties as it will be akin to summoning a catastrophe to happen, maybe at another building. To set the ball rolling, the government should rush its best investigators to promptly examine the collapse and document the cause and extent of the losses and take up proceedings for negligent actions. Notwithstanding the small damages (luckily), the episodes should not be swept under the carpet for any reason whatever.