The rot of shoddy workmanship in most government project seems to have percolated even to private contracts. The slab collapse of the Holy Trinity Church at Benaulim, just after it was cast, seems to aptly affirm this. Can this menace be stopped before it gets too far? By Our Special Correspondent.

THANK GOD! Though the whole slab came crushing down there were no casualties.

THE HOLY TRINITY Church at Benaulim which until recently was popularly known as Our Lady of Livrament Chapel was demolished to construct in its place a new Church due to increase in the number of devotees.

The new Church structure has reached the ceiling level and the roof slab was cast on September 20, 2004. All was well until 7:30 pm. This is when all those involved in casting of the slab were preparing to return home. The entire slab that was cast came crashing to the floor. The debris was quickly cleared but the reinforcement wires still lie hanging on the wall and appear to be like a large fishing net. Miraculously no one was hurt.

Church sources point out that the contract was awarded to outside parties and none of the Church committees were directly involved in the construction process. No one seems to have an answer as to who is responsible and what went wrong. There is hostility shown by the church committee and others running the Church affairs. Those from outside the parish, who contributed generously in form of donations, are very bitter since they are in the dark over what went wrong. “All that we are being told is that it is none of our concern since we are not part of the parish” is what one donor had to say. There seems to be a mysterious silence over the whole issue and it clearly appears that attempts are being made to hush up matters.

WHAT A MESS: The iron rods taht exposed the ahoddy work of the contractors.

Technical persons from in and around the Benaulim village point out that there was something drastically wrong with the scaffolding. They say that since the work was supposed to be monitored by professionals, their assitance was not required. According to them, with the height as much as 9.5 meters, the props, which are supports for the slab when cast, were not braced with each other at intermediate levels. If this had been done correctly, all props would have acted as one firm uniform platform and would have avoided this disaster. In all probability, the props bulged midway at some point and the whole thing gave way and with it the entire slab.

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