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MNS workers placed a placard in the hands of BMC chief engineer of roads Sanjay Darade on Wednesday that reads: “I am responsible for the city potholes.”

A day after two Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) corporators allegedly humiliated Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) chief engineer of roads Sanjay Darade making him hold a placard saying, “I am responsible for the city potholes”, around 700 engineers gathered at the BMC headquarters and 550 of them submitted their resignations to the municipal commissioner as a mark of protest. The engineers have demanded that the two MNS corporators allegedly involved in the incident, Sandeep Deshpande and Santosh Dhuri, be arrested and disqualified. They have given a deadline of October 10 for the same or threatened mass resignation of 4,200 engineers. Mr Mehta has not accepted Thursday’s resignations.

The engineers’ strike will delay the post-monsoon road repair work to be undertaken by the BMC in October. The BMC had scheduled annual road repairs to begin from October 1. However, as it has rained the past week, it was unable to undertake the repair work. This will now be delayed further.

The BMC engineers came to the civic body headquarters on Thursday chanting slogans against MNS corporator Sandeep Deshpande.

They urged Mr Mehta to disqualify the Mr Despande and Mr Dhuri and lodge criminal cases against them. Sainath Rajadhyaksh, general secretary of the civic engineers union, said, “We have given the BMC a deadline of October 10 to take action against the corporators. No engineer will resume work until the some concrete action is taken against them.”

Meanwhil,e Mr Mehta said, “I have requested the engineers to not go on strike. But the incident that happened with one of the officers is very unfortunate so we understand the position they all are in.”

However, Mr Deshpande said, “There are several potholes in my area since the past three months. I have been following up with Darade, but to no avail. This was the only technique left for us. If the municipal commissioner does not ensure a pothole-free city within seven days, I will not opt for bail if I am arrested, so long as all potholes are not taken care of.”

An FIR against MNS corproators Sandeep Deshpande and Santosh Dhuri has been registered at Shivaji park police station on the complaint of BMC Chief Engineer Sanjay Darade.