VASCO: A portion of a wall near cell number 10 of Sada sub jail Headland Sada, Mormugao, collapsed on Sunday evening. The incident triggered chaos and the jail authorities soon swung into action and took out inmates lodged in the top floor to an open area on the ground floor.
Around 9 pm, the weak portion of the wall came down crashing. All the 17 inmates of the cell, besides 50 others, lodged in different cells on the top floor, had to be evacuated. They were later shifted to cells which were in a slightly better condition. The jail authorities have now decided to shift some of them to Colvale Jail on Monday.
“A portion of the wall had collapsed in the evening. Our officials have inspected the site and have confirmed the same. We soon evacuated all the inmates from the top floor. We had, in the past, informed the PWD about the condition of the building, which had developed several cracks too,” IG Prison, Elvis Gomes, said.
The jail authorities had also requested the PWD to take up repair work here on an urgent basis. However, the jail authorities alleged that the PWD had neglected their pleas.
According to sources at Sada sub jail, as the inmates had to be kept together for a few hours, the jail authorities had sought the help of Goa Police to ensure that there were no untoward incidents.
Sources at the jail also said that soon after the incident, jail authorities contacted PWD officials asking them if the building should be tagged unsafe and whether keeping inmates here was advisable. However, the assistant engineer, PWD, Building Division, refused to visit the site and in an SMS said he was busy watching a movie.
