The civic chief ordered city engineers to follow the procedure and issue the suspension order to Vibhas Achrekar and Kishor Yerme with immediate effect.
Municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta has ordered the suspension of two executive engineers and departmental inquiry against four other engineers from civic roads department for issuing the penalty recovery letter to contractors in order to help them seek bail from the high court and evade arrest. The engineers invoked two clause which they shouldn't have as they were not even a part of contract conditions.
The civic chief ordered city engineers to follow the procedure and issue the suspension order to Vibhas Achrekar and Kishor Yerme with immediate effect. "Yerme and Achrekar issued the penalty recovery letter to contractors by invoking clause 69 and clause 87 of General Conditions of Contract of the BMC. While clause 69 deals with 'liability for defect or imperfection and rectification thereof ', clause 87 deals with 'under payment and overpayment," said senior civic official.
The official added that here it was the case of mala fide intention of the contractors and the engineers helped them to get away. "Engineers who issued the penalty recovery letter knew very well that the case was in the court and police investigation was underway. They did the act knowingly, which they shouldn't have and will have to pay the price for the same," said the official.
Senior civic official said that while the first step is suspension, the engineers will have to face departmental inquiry. "Last week, they were served a show cause notice and their replies were compiled in a report which was discussed in a meeting with Mehta, on Monday, who had recommended stricter action against the engineers," said an official.
Last week, the engineers from the civic roads department (western suburbs) helped the contractors by issuing them a letter asking them to pay up the penalty. Contractors paid the penalty officially through demand draft to avoid the action in the high court. At least three out of six contractors involved in the road scam have managed to escape the arrest citing the payment of the penalty amount as demanded by the civic administration.
The issue came to the light when the senior officials of the BMC who are in charge of the inquiry received a letter from the investigation officer of the police department. The letter explained that the civic engineers have helped the contractors to seek bail from the court by submitting the copies of proof of the penalties paid.
Interestingly, none of the three contractors disputed the penalty amount demanded by the engineers of the roads department and paid the amount through demand draft. The copies of the same were presented in court on the basis of which the bail was granted. However, the contractors who could not pay the penalty did not get the bail and were sent to police custody.
Meanwhile, the report of investigation and inquiry of 200 roads will be submitted soon to the municipal commissioner.
BMC will experiment Nagpur Company's cold mix for pothole filling
Additional municipal commissioner Sanjay Deshmukh said that the Nagpur-based company has been appointed for the experiment with new cold mix material. The company has worked with their new 'patented' cold mix in Delhi and Nagpur. Cost of 10 tonnes of material would cost the BMC Rs3 lakh for the experiment. The material, which comes in plastic bags, is expected to arrive in the city in a fortnight.
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