Civic engineers protest ‘bias’

A joint action committee set up by two engineers’ unions of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) held protests at Azad Maidan on Wednesday against what they claim is biased and unfair action taken by the BMC against civic engineers whose names have cropped up in the road scam. Moreover, this committee has also placed certain demands before the civic body, which it believes will help improve the overall working condition of civic engineers.

This committee has been formed by the amalgamation of two engineers’ unions functioning in the BMC, the Municipal Engineers Association and the BMC Engineers Union.

The committee members protested against the suspension of two civic engineers on Tuesday and against the internal enquiry set up against four other officials suspected of being involved in the road scam.

After it came to light recently that the engineers had levied a fine on contractors after they had been indicted in the road scam, virtually absolving the latter of their responsibility as they claimed that they had already paid the fine, the civic body suspected the involvement of the engineers in the Rs 352-crore graft. Following this, two officials were suspended on Tuesday.

The joint action committee demanded that the BMC play a fairer role in figuring out the role of the engineers, whose responsibility has not even been properly outlined by the Bombay high court-appointed STAC in 2008. Sources said: “The engineers are highly qualified and this is dampening their morale. Third-party auditors were responsible for checking all the work and signing papers on completion of their inspection. How are engineers involved, and to what extent then ”