Andhra govt suspends 7 officials, initiates action against contractor over temple wall collapse

Andhra Pradesh government on Monday suspended seven officials over the recent wall collapse at Simhachalam temple in Visakhapatnam and initiated criminal proceedings against the contractor and two employees, sources said.

Seven people were crushed to death in the wee hours of May 1 when a rain-soaked wall collapsed at the Sri Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy Temple (Simhachalam temple) in Visakhapatnam.

"The contractor and officials were responsible for the loss of lives due to utter negligence," said a government source, sharing the action taken by the TDP-led NDA government over the incident.

Following the disaster, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu had ordered an inquiry into the incident by a three-member committee, which submitted its report today.

The committee members are Irrigation chief engineer Venkateswar Rao, Municipal Administration principal secretary S Suresh Kumar and senior IPS officer Ake Ravi Krishna.

According to the report, the wall collapsed due to the negligence of contractor K Lakshmi Narayana and the seven employees from the Endowments and Tourism Departments.

Suspended employees included K Subba Rao, DG Srinivasa Raju, K Ramana, KSN Murthy, ABVLR Swamy, P Madan Mohan and K Babji.

The state government has also blacklisted the contractor.

However, during the inquiry, Lakshmi Narayana alleged that he was compelled to erect the wall within three days, sources said.