ACTION TAKEN
was to be stopped for two years, we have now reduced it to one year, or the amount of basic pay reduced has been changed. The new punishments have been mailed to the officers concerned over the past one month.”
According to the officer, the panel attributed the reduction in punishment to factual errors in the documents on the basis of Six engineers were removed from service, which included the chief engineer, assistant engineer, and four sub-engineers Punishments of the others ranged from reduced basic pay to no increment for two years and no promotion to reduction in pension.
TWO INQUIRIES CONDUCTED OVER A PERIOD OF TWO YEARS HELD 169 ROAD ENGINEERS GUILTY IN THE ₹1,700-CRORE ROAD SCAM
which the punishments were decided.
“In our original inquiry reports, the BMC graded punishments on the basis of amount of negligence. That hasn’t changed, but some factual errors came to light,” said a senior civic officer. “If an officer was punished for negligence on 60 roads, but was in charge of only 50, his punishments were reduced,” he said.
Activist Shailesh Gandhi said, “If punishment for only five out of 56 officers who had appealed has been reduced, it means the BMC is serious about punishing them for their offences. If the punishment of 50 officers was reduced, I would have said the BMC is unfair. What remains to be seen is if they are actually made to serve the punishment. The civic body should upload the information on their website.”
Ravi Raja, leader of the opposition in the BMC, said, “The biggest problem here is that BMC officers were put in charge of hearing the appeals. We can’t expect 100% objectivity when their colleagues are handling such inquiries or reports.”