Vadodara boat tragedy: BJP corporator seeks action against VMC officials who ‘slacked in supervision duty’

In his memorandum to the Municipal Commissioner, Joshi stressed, “The pictures of the incident were heartbreaking and there is a natural and strong public opinion that those responsible for this accident should be meted out the strictest punishment. There is a magisterial inquiry that has been set up following the incident and the police department is also conducting a probe. But, in my clear opinion, the VMC is also responsible for this tragedy.”

Stating that the VMC has been trying to “pass the buck” as no department is “owning up responsibility”, Joshi said, “This project initially began under the Project Special Cell, then was passed on to the Futuristic Planning Cell and was part of the East Zone of the city. However, after the new election wards were demarked, the project went under the jurisdiction of the North Zone but it appears that the Executive Engineer of the North Zone Ward office had no information it fell under his supervision as he has no file data regarding this project. If the project file continues to be with the Futuristic Planning Cell, then the supervision of the project should also have been undertaken by the department but this department concerned has not fulfilled its duty.”

Demanding action against officials of the Futuristic Planning Cell, who are currently complainants in the FIR lodged at Harni police station against 20 persons, Joshi said, “There is a continuous blame game going on while deciding where the buck should stop but there should be a deep investigation into the project right since its commencement.”

“It has come to light that when the VMC had sought an Expression of Interest for the redevelopment of the Harni Lake under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model, M/s Kotia Projects had no experience of working on such a project and was disqualified but within two months when the EOI was reinvited, the company was able to produce documents to show eligibility, turnover and other requirements. What did the VMC officials see in this company to term it eligible in the pre-qualification process or was it under some pressure? It is a matter of investigation…” he further said.

On Sunday, Joshi had pledged to put off his visit to the Ram Temple in Ayodhya because he “could not face Lord Ram” after having witnessed “14 innocent lives become victims of a
system”.

Joshi had told The Indian Express, “No compensation can fill the vacuum that they would feel for their life after losing their innocent children. It burdened my conscience… I have not slept peacefully, knowing that justice needs to be done..”