Road engineers may be spared action this year

In 2012,BMC announced pothole complaints must be addressed within 48 hours,failing which engineers/contractors concerned would be fined Rs 1,000 per day. A fine of roughly Rs 1.25 crore was levied on 12 engineers and of around Rs 1.8 crore on contractors.

In November,after a series of meetings with the engineers,additional municipal commissioner Aseem Gupta brought the fine amount down to Rs 8.34 lakh.

“Following the fine,there was a deadlock between the administration and the engineers union. To avoid such problems this year,it is unlikely the engineers will be penalised,” a senior civic official said.

Gupta admitted fines levied last year were yet to be collected. “We are yet to decide if penalties should be applied this year. Many engineers said they had problems uploading pictures of work done within 48 hours since the website would not open,” he said.

Citizens,however,fear lack of accountability in the absence of penalties. “With fines,there was pressure on BMC to act within a time. What message will the administration send if it panders to every interest of its employees?” said Anandini Thakoor,chairperson of H-West federation.

Samajwadi Party leader Rais Shaikh said BMC could not hold engineers responsible for bad roads. “Every time tenders are floated late,delaying road works. This burdens engineers fixing potholes.”

alison.saldanha@expressindia.com