Mumbai: The city’s pothole woes is likely to worsen further as road engineers on Monday quit all social messenger groups that were being used by senior civic officials to monitor road repair works. The engineers left the group to mark a protest against the recent arrests of two senior officials. Last week, the special investigation team (SIT) probing the road scam arrested two senior civic engineers. ” As a mark of protest, we decided to quit all social messenger groups we were a part of. The group was being used to update officials about pothole or road repair works undertaken in the city,” said an engineer.
Meanwhile, Mumbaikars, from onset of monsoon till Monday , recorded 612 pothole related complaints. The maximum number of complaints–213–came from citizens in the western suburbs, while 202 complaints were registered by island city residents. Residents of the eastern suburbs registered 197 complaints. Civic officials said that of the total 612 complaints, 507 had already been attended to.The work on filling up the remaining potholes, they said, was in progress. Ward-wise, the highest number of complaints-66–came from areas in L ward, which includes Kurla and Saki Naka, and K West ward, which includes parts of Andheri, Juhu and Oshiwara.
Once a complaint is regis tered, BMC officials are expected to attend to it within 24-48 hours. Citizens can register complaints on the BMC website (http:www.mcgm.gov .in), the BMC mobile application (MCGM 24X7) and the toll-free number 12921293 or (from MTNL) 022-22691293.
On Tuesday , Congress MLA Nitesh Rane will hold a pothole photo exhibition at the party’s office at Azad Maidan. The police custody of the two senior civic officials arrested in the Rs 352.16 crore road repair scam was extended on Monday . DCP Manoj Kumar Sharma, said, “The court agreed with our demand and remanded them in police custody till July 15. We are going through all the documents and will submit them before the court.”
Meanwhile, around 500 BMC engineers protested on Monday against the arrest of the two officials. Members of the joint action committee of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Engineers Union and the Municipal Engineers Association staged a protest at Azad Maidan on Monday .They alleged that the BMC was burdening the civic engineers with lot of work.
“The BMC requires 800 engineers in the roads department but there are only 140. These 140 are loaded with work worth several crores of rupees. So much responsibility should not be put on a single person,” said Sukhdev Kashid, secretary of the union.He added that the BMC had hired private contractors and third-party auditors, who were responsible for the work, but yet, it went ahead and suspended two engineers. “If the inquiry team wanted to pin responsibility on a senior official, it should have done so on the additional municipal commissioner in charge of the road department at that time. Why hold the engineers responsible?” asked Kashid.
Sainath Rajadhyaksha, secretary of the engineers union said that they had submitted a memorandum to the CM, the DCP of the respective area and the municipal commissioner.”The suspension and arrest were done hurriedly without a proper inquiry . We have decided to work only within duty hours till 5.30pm, even if there is work pending,” said Rajadhyaksha