Says it will move court if civic body levies hefty fines on sub-engineers for non-completion of road repair works
Days after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) decided to penalise sub-engineers from its road department for failing to execute road repair works in their respective wards, the engineers’ union has threatened the civic body of legal action.
The Mumbai Engineers Association (MEA) said it would move court if any of the sub-engineers from 24 wards were penalised.
ADVERTISEMENT
The BMC had set the upper limit of fine between Rs 12 lakh and Rs 15 lakh.
One of the MEA members questioned, “How can the BMC ask a sub-engineer, who earns Rs 35,000 a month, to pay such a hefty fine?”
Though the engineers are yet to receive an official conformation from the civic body, it was learnt that several of them approached the union in advance.
“It is unfair and unjust to impose such heavy fines on engineers. They don’t even earn that much a year,” said MEA officer-bearer Sainath Rajadhyaksha.
Rajadhyaksha confirmed that the BMC is yet to issue an official circular or a written order, stating collection of fines from engineers.
“On Wednesday, all the engineers will meet and decide future course of action. If required, we are ready to move court,” said Rajadhyaksha.
Penalty stroke
Confirming that sub-engineers would be penalised if they failed to do their job on time, Additional Municipal Commissioner Aseem Gupta said, “Fines can be revoked if the reason behind the delay is justified. But those who hold up work unnecessarily will be punished.”
A senior official from the road department said none of the sub-engineers would be fined beyond Rs 5,000 and the lakhs that were mentioned was a technical error. “Actually, the fine worth lakhs has been imposed on contractors. By mistake it went against the name of sub-engineers,” he said.
MEA and Standing Committee chairperson Rahul Shewale said, “The fine amount will not be more than Rs 5,000. There was some technical error. Moreover, the amount will be reconsidered and will be imposed only on those who fail to deliver despite favourable conditions.” u00a0
4,000
Total number of engineers in the BMC
100
Number of engineers working for road departmentu00a0