PWD engineer given notice for switching centre flooding: Patil

Maharashtra minister Chandrakant Patil today said a show-cause notice was issued to PWD deputy engineer for the flooding in the switching centre at Vidhan Bhavan here, which led to adjournment of both the Houses of the state Legislature earlier in the day.

The Legislative Assembly as well as the Council were today adjourned as power supply had to be turned off after the switching centre that provides electricity to Vidhan Bhavan was flooded following heavy rains in the city.

Talking to reporters, Patil said Nagpur has been witnessing very heavy rains since Thursday night.

"It is an unprecedented and unexpected situation. Rain water entered the premises since the roads of the city have been repaired and elevated. So the water entered Vidhan Bhavan premises," he said.

"However, had the drains been cleaned properly, this situation would not have arisen. Today, the Assembly was at 10 am. If it was scheduled at 11 am or 12 noon, the situation would have been normal since the electricity was restored at 11.30 am," Patil said.

"We have issued a showcause notice to the deputy engineer for the flooding of the switching centre panel which supplies power to the premises. The centre was turned off to avoid any untoward incident and power was restored after water was removed from the panel. It was flooded because of choking of drains. This should be probed," the minister said.

Patil justified the decision to adjourn the Houses for the day.

"Since today is Friday, all the legislators want to go back to their respective constituencies and the business listed on the agenda was also not much. So instead of waiting till the electricity was restored, it was unanimously decided to adjourn the Houses for the day. The Legislative Council had begun at 12noon," he said.

When asked about the bottles and plastic found in the drains during cleaning, the minister said the matter needs to be probed.

Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil said owing to the "mismanagement" of the government, both the Houses had to be adjourned for the day.

"Since the management was a disaster, the government had to face the embarrassment of legislature proceedings being adjourned for the day due to rains and power shutdown," he said adding that in the last three and half years, the government has already pushed the state into darkness.