Surat: One day ahead of the hearing in Gujarat High Court, Surat Municipal Corporation suspended five officials over alleged lapses concering the Nasir Nagar demolition on May 30.This comes more than a month after the demolition and follows the preliminary inquiry into the roles of civic officials.Sources in the SMC said the officials failed to explain to the inquiry committee why they did not intervene when the demolition was carried out without following due legal procedure. Records show SMC teams were only to conduct demarcation to identify land required for road expansion.Those suspended are executive engineer Sujal Prajapati, executive engineer and Central Zone engineering head Jayang Jivenramjiwala, deputy engineer (civil) Arpan Parmar, assistant engineer (civil) Monik Gadhiya and junior engineer (civil) Naresh Galchar. The suspension order states that the step was necessary to ensure a neutral and impartial inquiry.“Even if SMC officials did not order the demolition, they should have tried to stop it when it was being carried out without following the legal procedure,” said a senior civic official.The preliminary findings are based on a report submitted by Central Zone chief Ashish Naik, along with property-related documents. The inquiry committee later sought responses from the officials before reaching its conclusion.Residents alleged that the demolition was carried out abruptly and without safeguards, saying they were not served notices or given time to seek legal remedy. Around 100 houses were demolished by labourers and backhoe loaders deployed by a contractor, under the watch of the police’s special operations group.The controversy deepened due to conflicting statements from civic officials. Central Zone authorities initially denied SMC involvement, a stance maintained by municipal commissioner M Nagarajan until June 20, when he acknowledged in a video message that the demolition had been carried out by the corporation, adding that the matter was sub judice. On June 11, Ashish Naik had said civic teams were present only for demarcation.The inquiry committee, formed on June 9 and headed by deputy municipal commissioner Meena Gajjar, submitted its report on Tuesday, one day before the high court hearing. BJP MLA Vinod Moradiya had questioned the composition of the committee and demanded the inclusion of state govt officials.“The suspension has come late, after the affected persons approached HC. The inquiry committee should find out who played a role behind the scenes, including politicians, police or businesspersons,” said former Congress municipal councillor Aslam Cyclewala.
