Patna, May 6 (IANS): The second wave of coronavirus is not only taking lives of frontline warriors but several other key government officials as well, with the Bihar Engineering Service Association (BESA) claiming 22 engineers of different departments died while over 500 others are infected across the state.

BESA General Secretary, Dr Sunil Kumar Chaudhary, said that the majority of infected persons are battling for their lives in home isolation or in hospitals.

"As per our report, three engineers of the Road Construction Department, four from the Water Resource Department, one from the Micro Water Resource Department, two from the Building Construction Department, one from the Public Health Engineering Department, one from the Rural Development Department and 10 more engineers from other departments lost the battle of life in second wave of corona," he said.

"The deaths of engineers are continuously taking place in Bihar. Despite that, several departments are forcing engineers to stay at work. The offices are closed due to lockdown but construction of various projects are currently underway. We are extremely unhappy over the Nitish Kumar government's decision to expose us at a time of community spread of deadly coronavirus," he added.

Noting that there is no monitoring authority over ongoing projects, he said that the quality of constructions may come under question mark. "In this case, if any below quality construction would take place in projects, who would be held responsible for it in future," Chaudhary asked.