Agitated with the arrested of 8 persons, including 7 engineers of the Uttar Pradesh State Bridge Corporation (UPSBC), the members of Bridge Corporation Junior Engineer Sangh wear black badges and remained away from their duties on Monday, boycotting the work all over the State. 

Terming the action as unwanted harassment of only the engineers and employees of the Corporation, the Association President, claimed that if such one sided action will continue against their colleagues and they will be not immediately release than the employees will chalk out strategy for further agitation and they would even went on strike across the state and will also not work in the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad. 

Shree Prakash Gupta, president of the Bridge Corporation Diploma Engineers Association questioned that why the Government just blamed the engineers when the incident took place also to the negligence of the local administration. ``Bridge Corporation officials had written several letters to Varanasi Association but they not diverted the traffic movement which finally turned fatal resulting into loss of human lives”, Gupta claimed while blaming the administration equally responsible for the incident. He demanded that just like no action has been taken against the administrative officials, the government immediately also set free the Bridge Corporation officials otherwise they will also force to draw a strategy to come out open against the government and boycott the work. 

It may be mentioned that 8 persons which included 7 engineers and a contractor of UPSBC have been arrested in connection with the Varanasi flyover collapse on May 15 last, which left 15 persons dead. DGP, OP Singh, while confirming of the arrest said that action was taken after collecting “technical evidence” with the help of scientists of Central Building Research Institute, Roorkee. “It was found that there were many shortcomings on which the investigating officer quizzed the engineers before arresting them,” the DGP said. 

A probe into the incident found that the failure to cast cross beams for locking the girders led to the collapse of a portion of a railway over bridge as the structure was left exposed to external forces. The report of a technical committee, set up by the state government to ascertain the cause of incident, also said uninterrupted traffic flow on the road was the main reason for generating vibrations that may have led to the collapse. An FIR was registered against the State Bridge Corporation officials under IPC Section 304 (culpable homicide), Section 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) on May 16, a day after the collapse, following a complaint by the Roadways police outpost in-charge.