Noida admin orders probe into death of two workers at pvt builder's construction site

The Gautam Buddh Nagar administration Wednesday ordered a magisterial probe into the death of two construction workers at an upcoming housing society in Greater Noida reportedly due to the lack of safety gear.

Ajay Malik (32) and Kishore Kumar (23) died Tuesday after falling off a 13th floor-level scaffolding of the housing society by ATS group in Sector 150, while others, including an engineer at the site, were injured, police said.

District Magistrate Brajesh Narain Singh Wednesday ordered the formation of a four-member committee for an instant probe into the incident and cited a media report stating that the workers killed did not have adequate safety equipment.

"This is a very serious incident. On October 29, 2018 also, two workers died at an under-construction site of the ATS group in Sector 132 under similar conditions. With the incident occurring again, it appears that the ATS builders are not following the guidelines properly and being negligent," he said in a letter.

The four-member committee comprises Deputy Collector, Gautam Buddh Nagar Abhay Singh, Public Works Department Executive Engineer Vimal Kumar, Assistant Labour Officer Harish Chandra and Assistant Director, Factories, Ram Bahadur, he said.

The committee has been tasked with finding if the builders followed the necessary steps to ensure safety of workers at the project site as per administrative procedures and submit a report within 15 days, the letter stated.

"The committee will also find out if there has been any negligence on the part of the builder or the contractor that led to the death of the workers. If yes, it would present a detailed report on the nature of negligence and if it amounted to criminal or common negligence or both," it added.

The committee may also make any other suggestions related to the incident, the letter said.

The ATS group could not be immediately contacted for a response.