Only 2 JEs left to check violations in city

In fact,it has been more than a decade since the posts were filled on a regular basis,leaving much to be desired from the department,in the backdrop of ever-increasing cases of violations in the city.

It is the responsibility of a junior engineer to physically visit the sectors assigned to him and to prepare a list of properties,both commercial and residential,having violations and issuing corresponding notices to the violators.

Till a few years ago,there were nine posts for junior engineers and six posts of draftsmen in the city and in the current situation,in which the workload has increased manifold,there are only two junior engineers and three draftsmen.

When contacted,Assistant Estate Officer Rahul Gupta said,“We are aware of the situation and thus we had put in a request for filling up the posts to the Finance Department. We have been given two JEs from the engineering department for the time being and we will be getting few more soon”.

Whenever a building plan is submitted,the concerned JE of the area is required to physically inspect the premises before the plan is sanctioned and is also responsible for keeping a tab after it is approved to see if any changes have been made in the plan during the construction work.

It was almost a decade and a half ago when the Department of Engineering was merged with the Estate Office and the former was given the responsibility of making a common pool of engineers for both the departments.

The severity of the shortage of junior engineers could be gauged from the fact that in the recent past,despite blatant violations in marla houses which are over 14,000 in number,notices could be sent to less than 40 per cent of the violators.