Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar (Express photo by Jasbir Malhi) Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar Tuesday recommended a CBI probe into the last month’s collapse of a portion of a tower in a housing society in Gurgaon which had claimed two lives.
“We will hand over the matter to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI),” Khattar informed the Viodhan Sabha following heated arguments with Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda over the issuance of licence to the Chintels Paradiso society.
Two women were killed after the dining room floor of a sixth-floor apartment at Chintels Paradiso in Sector 109 came down on February 10, triggering the collapse of roofs and floors directly under it, till the first floor.
Amid discussions on some other issue in the House, Khattar targeted the previous Congress regime saying, “We have come to know that the licence to Chintels Paradiso was issued during their (Hooda) government”.
After Khattar made the statement, Hooda replied: “Arrest me, if an offence has been committed by merely giving a licence during my government.”
Khattar said the previous Congress regime was hit by various scams. At this, Hooda asked, “Are they talking of corruption? Corruption is rampant in this (BJP) regime and there has been one scam after another.”
Khattar then referred to the cancellation of different recruitments made during the previous Congress regime, and specifically pointed out irregularities in the recruitment of JBT teachers.
“The corruption in jobs is not an issue which has started today, rather it’s roots are very old and corruption has been going on since the time of Congress. Our government is strictly investigating all the cases to completely eradicate corruption and whoever is found guilty will not be spared at any cost,” he added.
On Monday, Cabinet Minister J P Dalal told the Assembly that an FIR had already been lodged in connection with the incident.
Days after the collapse, the authorities had said that they would conduct a structural audit of four other towers to determine if they were safe for living.
Notably, an FIR was registered by the Haryana Police against the builder, Chintels India Private Ltd, the contractor and five other parties engaged in the group housing project. In view of the recent tragic accident in society, the CM said in the Assembly, “the matter including issuance of licence will now be investigated by the CBI”.
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