Bihar puts onus on DMs,SPs for engineers safety

The death of Bihar PWD engineer Yogendra Pandey seems to have woken up the Bihar Government to...

The death of Bihar PWD engineer Yogendra Pandey seems to have woken up the Bihar Government to the security threat faced by road construction engineers in the state. Chief Secretary RJM Pillai has shot off a stern letter to all DMs and SPs making them directly accountable for any future attack on engineers engaged in development projects. Moreover,Special Auxiliary Police jawans are to be deployed at construction sites and are to escort the engineers at their offices and construction sites.

Terrified colleagues of executive engineer Yogendra Pandey who died under suspicious conditions on June 18 expressed the apprehension that honest engineers and whistle blowers were doomed to go the Satyendra Dubey and Yogendra Pandey way in absence of any security to protect them from the rampant contractor raj.

Pandeys subordinates at Sitamarhi PWD office admitted that they had been working under pressure from unscrupulous contractors and were very often bullied to forward files for payment to the executive engineer.

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The Indian Express found that the clerks to the dealing assistant at Pandeys office were all under pressure to relax norms to forward files to Pandey.

KK Pandey,head clerk at Pandeys office,said that he had never seen an upright officer like Pandey in his life.

If the work matched details of a file,he would promptly sign the cheque for a construction company. If he was not satisfied,no amount of pressure or persuasion from contractors concerned would make him budge,said the visibly shaken head clerk adding that if his boss could meet such an end,God alone can save the small fries.

Pandeys dealing assistant D N Verma also admitted to being bullied by contractors for fast payment but said he did not have the guts to protest as the Government would be unable to protect his family.

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Patna Forensic Sciences Laboratory head technician Adiya Paswan reportedly accused Sitamarhi police of not cooperating with them. The FSL report has debunked the District Polices preliminary findings indicating suicide and suggested that Pandey mayve been murdered,a claim backed by the second post-mortem report.

No eyewitnesses were presented to the team even though the SP had claimed that as Yogendra Pandey jumped to death at 10.34 a.m. on 18 June from third floor collectorate building,there were many eye-witnesses of the accident. The team,which was not given an explanation for why crucial evidence like blood stains were washed from the spot,has found blood in Pandeys lungs suggesting asphyxia (loss of oxygen) besides a head injury inflicted from a blunt object as the causes of death.

Meanwhile,over 20,000 engineers under various engineers bodies continue to abstain from work since June 19 and will hold a rally at Patna on Wednesday to mount pressure on the state government to get at the truth behind Pandeys death. The politics over the death has already begun. RJD president Lalu Prasad who sat on a dharna here said,There is no law and order in Bihar. Yogendra Pandey was killed. Over a dozen murders were reported last month but the Chief Minister is busy with his thank you yatra rather than taking stock of bitter home truths.