Civic officials say assault by politicians is common

AP KHAN OF THE FORUM OF MCD ENGINEERS SAID IN THE LAST ONE YEAR, AT LEAST FIVE TO SIX EMPLOYEES HAVE BEEN MANHANDLED BY MCD COUNCILLORS

NEWDELHI: At least six employees of Delhi’s civic bodies have been manhandled by councillors and other politicians since April 2017, employees associations of the three municipal bodies have alleged.

The allegation comes just three days after Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash was allegedly assaulted by legislators of Aam Aadmi Party on Monday.

“In the last one year, at least five to six employees have been manhandled by MCD councillors. Such incidents are common in the civic bodies, and sometimes the engineers are thrashed,” said AP Khan, general secretary of the forum of MCD engineers.

“In the municipal corporations, the councillors, MLAS, MPS and other political representatives interfere with the dayto-day work of the engineers. There is always pressure on the public servant to obey the directions of political wings, whether it is right or wrong,” says a press release issued by the MCD (general wing) SC/ST Engineers Association to condemn the attack on Prakash.

In December 2017, the mayor of South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) had to adjourn a house meeting after some councillors misbehaved with a woman employee, noting down the minutes of the meeting.

Earlier, in September 2017, an additional director of SDMC Najafgarh zone was allegedly beaten up by some people accused to be ‘the goons of a councillor’. A formal complaint was lodged with the police in the matter.

“In another incident, two junior engineers from SDMC were targeted for not addressing the issues of the local councillors last month,” Khan said.

Rakesh Kumar, leader of the opposition, North corporation and an AAP councillor, said there is no incident in which the opposition councillors have assaulted the MCD employees. “It is the rul- ing party members who misbehave with the staff,” he said.

Bhupinder Gupta, SDMC’S standing committee chairman and a BJP councillor, refuted the allegations. “I don’t think any incident of manhandling or assault has taken place in the civic agency,” he said.

Kamaljeet Sehrawat, SDMC mayor, said councillors are representatives of public and they maintain utmost caution. “These incidents are rare but still we ensure we hear both the parties and settle the matter. Moreover, there is always a reason behind such altercations,” she said.

Allegations of government employees being assaulted by politicians have also come from the Delhi government employees association.

“Such high-handedness by elected representatives are common in all government offices. The only difference is that they are hushed up because the officials are too scared to lodge a complaint. The assault on Prakash couldn’t be suppressed because he is the seniormost bureaucrat,” said Deepak Bhardwaj, general secretary of the Delhi Government Employees Welfare Association.