Simhachalam temple wall collapse: Inquiry panel to submit initial report today

Visakhapatnam: The three-man committee appointed to probe the wall collapse incident at Simhachalam temple will submit its preliminary report on Saturday, as it completed its preliminary inquiry by Friday evening.
Seven devotees were killed and one was injured when a newly constructed wall collapsed on the people waiting in a queue during Chandanotsavam Day, in the early hours of Wednesday.
On the second day (Friday), the committee spoke to the Agama Sastra Pandits or scholars, and a few others submitted representations to the committee. They also met with the victims. The committee collected samples of the collapsed wall and sent them to the lab for quality tests and other analyses. The committee even verified the master plan of the PRASAD scheme.
One of the members of the three-man committee, principal secretary of municipal administration and urban development Suresh Kumar, told media persons that their preliminary inquiry was complete and they would submit the preliminary report to the govt on Saturday. He said that the committee would meet the devotees in that particular stretch of the queue lines, where the accident took place, in the second round of inquiry and gather information about the wall collapse.
"Based on the investigation so far, this wall construction was done without any permissions. Everything proceeded based on verbal agreements and chaos. The master plan rules and regulations were completely ignored. We have taken samples from the wall and will question some devotees again," Suresh Kumar said.