Patna, Sept. 21: A public interest litigation (PIL) was filed in Patna High Court on Thursday in connection with the Bhagalpur canal that breached on the eve of its inauguration causing a loss of more than Rs 300 crore to the state exchequer, raising questions over the way the canal was constructed and its maintenance.

High court advocate Manibhushan Pratap Sengar filed the petition.

The writ petition demands an inquiry by an independent agency as to who is responsible for the damage caused to the newly constructed dam of Bateshwarsthan Ganga Pump Nahar Pariyojana in Bhagalpur wasting crores of public money.

Sengar in his petition has requested the court to issue an appropriate direction, directing the respondents to punish the guilty persons for their negligent and unaccountable work done involving huge amount of taxpayers' money.

The respondents made in the case are - Bihar chief secretary, principal secretary, water resources department, chief engineer, water resources department, senior project engineer and superintendent engineer of Bateshwarsthan Ganga Pump Nahar Pariyojana, Bhagalpur, executive engineer, water resources department, Bhagalpur, Bhagalpur commissioner and district magistrate, Bhagalpur.

Sengar has also requested the court to issue directives to the government to recover the lost money from the persons responsible for the incident as they have misutilised the public money along with further directives to reconstruct the dam with immediate effect.

The petitioner has expressed surprise with the fact that though the construction of the canal had started way back in 1979, it took almost 40 years to construct it and it was constructed in such a way that it collapsed prior to the inauguration day, accusing the state government of acting against public interest.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar was to inaugurate the project on Wednesday but had to cancel his schedule after the canal wall collapsed on Tuesday.