‘Missing’ engineer: govt orders probe

The threats were reportedly issued as the engineer did not accept the MLA’s demand to install a tubewell at a place of his (MLA’s) choice in Etawah district.

Contradictions have emerged on the whereabouts of Executive Engineer Shivdas (55). While it has been reported that he has been missing for the last two days and did not even attend his son’s wedding in Kanpur on Saturday,Atoria told mediapersons on Sunday evening that the engineer was with his family at his residence.

“He is at his residence,with his family,making arrangements for a party which will be held on Monday,” said Atoria. The senior bureaucrat has been asked by the government to summon the engineer and probe the allegations levelled against Bhimrao Ambedkar,BSP legislator from Lakhna in Etawah,and submit a report.

Atoria claimed that Shivdas had attended his son’s wedding. “I spoke to him twice today. Allegations levelled by Shivdas are being probed and the report will reveal the truth,” he added.

Earlier in the day,the engineer’s family said that they were still looking for him. Though the family is yet to lodge a complaint with the police,the engineer’s younger brother Shiv Prakash said Shivdas was “under pressure”. He,however,did not elaborate it saying the engineer’s wife and children could only explain it. Neither Shivdas’s wife Gomti Devi nor his children could be reached for comment.

Prakash said the family members last spoke to Shivdas on Friday after noon through phone when he asked them to make all arrangements for the wedding and said he would reach home by evening. Since then he has remained untraceable and his phone is switched off.

The engineer is said to have forwarded copies of his ‘resignation’ letter to Irrigation Minister Jaiveer Singh,Principal Secretary of Irrigation,District Magistrate and Etawah SP and others,but the government said it had ordered the inquiry after taking cognizance of reports in the media. On the probe ordered by the government,an official said,“If the complaint is found correct,effective action would be taken against the person concerned.”

Shivdas,who was posted in Etawah,lived in a rented house and visited his family in Kanpur over the weekend. His eldest son Shailendra Kumar,who got married on Sunday,works with a private company.

Under an irrigation project,as many as 24 sites were identified by an official committee for installation of tubewells. As the quality of water at two places was not found suitable for agriculture,a proposal to identity alternative sites was pending with the DM.

In his resignation letter,Shivdas has reportedly stated that MLA Bhimrao Ambedkar wanted a tubewell installed at a particular place and when he expressed his inability to do this,the MLA threatened a repeat of “the Auraiya incident”.

At Auraiya,PWD engineer Manoj Gupta was killed in December 2008 allegedly by BSP MLA Shekhar Tiwari and others after he “refused to pay money for Mayawati’s birthday celebrations”. The Lakhna legislator admitted that he had called up the executive engineer but did not threaten him.

“I called him up to know what sites had been selected for the installation of tubewells. Since a local person had requested me to install a tubewell in his area,I had conveyed this to the engineer,” said Ambedkar,a first-time MLA.

Lakhna MLA in the news
In the last two years,Ambedkar’s name has hit the headline twice,for wrong reasons though
* In September 2008,a Dalit farmer Suggar Singh Katheria committed suicide and blamed the MLA for getting an official building constructed on his land from his discretionary fund in the suicide note.
* In December 2007,a murder accused was reportedly arrested from the MLA’s residence