Waterlogging: IAS officer, 14 others suspended in Bihar

PATNA: State government on Monday suspended IAS officer Amarendra Prasad Singh, the then BUIDCO MD, and 14 other senior officers for their lapses that caused prolonged waterlogging in the state capital following incessant rain in the last week of September last year.
The other officers put under suspension are Birendra Kumar Tarun (executive officer, Bankipur circle of Patna Municipal Corporation), Poonam Kumari, (then EO of Kankarbagh circle, PMC) Shailesh Kumar (EO, new capital circle, PMC), Bhawani Nandan, (then chief engineer), Om Prakash Singh (superintending engineer), Suryakant (superintending engineer in-charge), Sanjiv Choudhary and Yogendra Kumar (both executive engineers), Ram Chandra Prasad (SE-HQ), Santosh Kumar (then executive engineer), Daya Shankar Prasad (EE), Sudarshan Prasad (EE-Mechanical), Anil Kumar Mahto and Vijay Singh (both junior engineers) in BUIDCO.
Besides suspension, the government would also initiate departmental proceedings against all these 15 officers.
The action against them were taken on the basis of findings of the high-level committee headed by development commissioner Arun Kumar Singh.
The then PMC commissioner Anupam Kumar Suman (an officer of Indian Revenue Service) was also found negligent in his duty by the high-level committee. Since Suman has now returned to his parent cadre-controlling department under the Union Ministry of Finance, the state government also decided to write a letter to the Union ministry concerned for taking “appropriate action” against Suman on the basis of findings of the high-level committee.
Earlier in October last year, the state government had removed Urban Development and Housing Department’s principal secretary Chaitanya Prasad and Patna divisional commissioner Anand Kishor from their positions in the wake of prolonged waterlogging. Then BUIDCO MD Singh was shifted to Bihar State Road Transport Corporation as administrator.