Karnataka - Belgaum   

False ceiling of ranga mandir collapses

Belgaum: The false ceiling of the Kumar Gandharva Ranga Mandir in the city collapsed on Friday. However, nobody was inside the auditorium when the incident occurred about 9 a.m. after flag hoisting by employees of the Department of Kannada and Culture, which functions from the same building.

The metallic ceiling collapsed from a height of about 40 ft. The auditorium can accommodate 585 people. The department was supposed to organise cultural programmes by school and college students as part of the Independence Day celebrations at the auditorium in the evening.

Deputy Commissioner G. Ravishankar said that an inspection would be held to ascertain the reasons for the incident.

Deputy Director of Kannada and Culture Nirmala Mathapathi said that the committee headed by the Deputy Commissioner had taken up renovation work on the mandir following announcement by the then Government to hold the World Kannada Meet in the city. The ceiling work was given to Nirmiti Kendra by the committee headed by the then Deputy Commissioner Shalini Rajneesh.

She said the work on the ceiling was completed in December 2006. The Public Works Department had certified that the work on ceiling was as per specifications. She said that she had submitted a report to the Deputy Commissioner in this regard.

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