Leading city educationist Jeppiaar was arrested on Thursday in connection with the death of 10 migrant workers on the premises of Jeppiaar Institute of Technology, Kunnam near Sunguvarchatram, two days ago.
Mr. Jeppiaar, founder-chairman of Jeppiaar Educational Trust, and chancellor of Sathyabhama University, runs several institutions of higher education.
According to the police, Mr. Jeppiaar and his son-in-law, N. Marie Wilson, floated the Jeppiaar Remibai Educational (JRE) Trust to start the JIT at Kunnam in 2011.
The first batch of students commenced their studies last year when some of the construction work on the institute campus was nearing completion.
In May, the JRE Trust took up construction of multi-purpose sports auditorium on the campus at a cost of Rs.2 crore and the work was being carried out with construction workers brought from Odisha and Assam.
On August 6 afternoon, a portion of a 40-foot wall collapsed, resulting in the death of 10 workers.
A case under sections 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life) and 304 (ii) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of IPC was booked and Mr. Wilson, director of JIT, civil contractors Rajkumar and Arul Jaya Ambrose and manpower agent, Sudhanandan, were arrested. An arrest warrant was served around 1.20 a.m. on Mr. Jeppiaar, who was convalescing in a private diabetes hospital in Egmore, Chennai.
Lodged in Vellore prison
A magistrate was brought to the hospital and Mr. Jeppiaar was remanded to judicial custody for 15 days. Later, Mr. Jeppiaar was shifted to the Vellore prison.
Keywords: College building collapse, Jeppiaar Institute of Technology, Kunnam, Kancheepuram district, Sunguvarchatram police station, migrant workers
I fully agree with the comments posted.There must be a mechanism ( a
corrupt free mechanism) to monitor the quality of materials, structural
rigidity and overall quality of construction in every such project
either public or private. By the by, we,the people who are very much
concerned about Srilankan Tamils, are not so much concerned about other
humans from other states of our own country.It is worrysome.Our hearts
must reach out to them.
It is a gross mistake to apprehend the head of an educational
institution for the death of construction workers due to building
collapse of the institute.
Unlike an architect or an engineer,in any case he would not have been
involved with the construction of building or would have dealed with
its technical details.
So making him an accused is too frivolous and injustice in
itself.Taking this case as an example,one would suggest the arrest of
the railway minister everytime a train accident happens which would
again be a futile and doesn't really serves the purpose.
People never ask how a person has made wealth but applaud on what that person does with his wealth.An ill gotten wealth will never be accepted even if used for a good purpose.Just because he runs several institutions does not mean he is a educationist.Educationist are people who have deep understanding of the society and the evolution of education culture and values.
With all his wealth and connections he will escape the punishment.Nothing will change in India.
There is very little sesitivity and awareness in many aspcts in India on safety,hygiene,security,cleaniness,concerns on environment & natural resources,Impact to other living beings and even Basic rights of people and their life are under threast and what not.
Media is just an amplifier to broadcast and only politicise these issues but not bring awareness and educate scientifically and impart knowledge and ignorance of people.Then why talk and boast of Indian culture & heritag etce. Is it just to attract foreign investment?
These poor people need a job and that is fine.People in Tamilnadu need cheap labour and that is fine.These things happen right in front of so called educated architects and engineers and that is not excusable.Something is basically wrong either with materials used or no proper oversight..
This looks not so good. The head of the institutions cannot be held
responsible for all the accidents that take place. If there is a
scam, or a planned act, then it makes sense to make them responsible.
Jeppiaar in this case or Vijayan in the bus accident case are not to
be blamed here. These are accidents, of course some norms were
flouted but we need to catch hold of persons who flouted them, like
the contractor in this case or the RTO in the school bus accident
case. Do we expect the institution head to be checking every bus they
operate or every structure they build? Do you think it is physically
possible for a person to do so? or are we jealous about the raise of
these people?
Mr. Siddharth, it has nothing to do with the government. Think a bit before you say anything. Consider the situation. Construction is happening on a large scale. Not just commercial buildings like the one in the article, but also homes of people like you and me. What do you and I do when we want to build? Do we choose a contractor who will abide by all labour laws, pay high wages, offer all welfare facilities to the labour, make them work only 8 hours, etc? Will you? Or will you go for the contractor who quotes the cheapest. That (cheapest) will be the choice of most of us. Cheapest means that he will bring in illiterate people who have no other hope in life but to take whatever he gives, over-work in unsafe conditions, etc.
And when the govt actually comes around to inspect and finds things wrong with what the contractor is doing, do we barge in and say yes I will pay the fine and ensure that things are per law? Or do we from behind ask him to bribe the official. So we are to blame.
It is unbecoming of the police to arrest Jeppiar. For train accident why are you not
arresting the railway minister and the Prime Minister or for hooch tragedy why are
you not arresting the state Chief Minister?. All these shows only our immaturity.
Whther negligence is on his part ?. A BIG NO. Maximum you can arrest the civil
engineer incharge for the site and architect and contractor and definitely not the
owner. By doing this sort of arrest, even his thinking of giving a compensation is
ruined. Be practical. Pl do not harass people. Then no developement can take place
in the state.
Arrest of "Jeppiaar" in connection with the death of 10 migrant workers on the premises of Jeppiaar Institute of Technology shows that the Tamilnadu government is allowing the law to have its own course. He is one of those responsible for commercialisation education. He has in fact encroached upon land belonging to government, religious bodies and even the public by using his political clout and started so many institutions. He is also one of those responsible for making AICTE and UGC into corrupt bodies. Most of the buildings of institutions run by him are built without proper plan permits. He is running these institutions in an undemocratic manner using muscle power. Most of the students in these institutions are from outside Tamilnadu. They are fleeced, intimidated and ill-treated. Money is the only criteria in all his institutions. The government should appoint a committee to review the functioning of these institutions and take suitable action.
Why? Jeppiar is not the engineer on site. Why should the govt arrest him? Is it some sort of political game?
In recent years many migrant workers have made Chennai their home. Since these workers are mostly uneducated and are unaware of their rights, they are being easily exploited. Neither the Government of the host state, Tamil Nadu, nor the Governments of the states they belong to are really bothered about the plight of these workers.
JPR will by all means come out of this unscathed using his 1000 crore empire. No wonder - with his high level links & many VVIP's children stuyding in his 10+ colleges - he knew what's coming and got himself admitted in hopital. The objective of the political circle is to initate his arrest for skimming atelast 100 crores - from JPR's black money (with recent collection of few 100 crores from student admissions) - before weakening the case like any other high profile cases.
Guess what? They didn't have proper approvals? Oh well they can bribe
the state govt employee and get it right away after a death, no
problem! Oh really! the people didn't have any prior work experience?
And this was a 2 Crore project? I hear that all this mega-multi
storeyed apartment complexes being built is also being built by
migrant workers with little or no education or training in civil
constructions. Further add the language barriers, when instructions
are being given for curing, nothing is being done properly because no
supervisory personnel are around to follow up on the curing process.
This makes the building weak in due course of time at a faster rate
than normal. All these multi-storeyed buildings are in for a very rude
awakening. This is very rampant in the coastal roads, especially East
Coast Road and Old Mahabalipuram Road, where the soil is loose.
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