SHILLONG, May 28: A week after the dome of upcoming Meghalaya Legislative Assembly building at the New Shillong Township collapsed, the authorities sealed the project’s construction site.
The incident had triggered widespread criticism and raised questions on the quality of work undertaken.
Some media persons visited the site on Saturday but the police personnel deployed there prevented them from entering the premises. Some persons, including labourers, were seen inside. A government vehicle (ML 01) was seen coming out of the premises.
The main structure was sealed apparently as the officials from an Indian Institute of Technology will be visiting the site to conduct a safety audit of the building.
The dome, which weighed over 4,000 metric tonnes, had collapsed in the wee hours of May 22.
After the incident, political parties, pressure groups, civil societies and citizens wasted no time in going hard at the government for the alleged shoddy construction. They are still mounting pressure on the government to get the incident probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
It has been around two decades since the devastating fire that gutted the historic Assembly building and since then the state is without a permanent assembly building. But to add to the misery, the much vaunted project in NST is now destined for further delay after the recent incident.
