Mumbai: 'Humiliated' road engineer wants protection from MNS

Chief engineer roads Sanjay Darade centre made to hold a placard taking responsibility of potholes on city roads File picAfter being humiliated by MNS corporators Santosh Dhuri and Sandip Deshpande over the pothole issue fearing attack from party workers chief engineer of the civic road department wants protection during inspection of road repair works Saying that he has to go for inspection of several ongoing works sometimes even at night Sanjay Darade has expressed a fear of such an act or attack repeatingOn October 5 two MNS corporators forced Darade to stand on a road in Dadar with a placard reading lsquoI am responsible for potholesrsquo Citing the rising number of potholes on city roads the party had even threatened that they would do this again if corrective measures were not takenOn fast trackAccording to a source in the road department Darade has voiced his safety concern before several senior officials and the engineersrsquo union and prepared a proposal for having a security guard accompany him during his inspectionsWhen asked about the issue Darade confirmed the development but refused to comment and said itrsquos an internal matterAfter facing flak from citizens and corporators the civic body has set May 2017 as the deadline for completing repairs of 1004 roads across the city Repairs of 100 roads worth R70 crore were started yesterdayBesides this filling up of potholes too is going on a war footing since last week Municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta had given the road department time till Monday to finish fixing potholes The deadline however has been missed as several craters remain as they wereSecurity concernsBut even as the massive amount of work started by the civic body goes on civic officials continue to be a wary lot afraid that in trying to settle political scores ahead of the BMC election parties could do anythingldquoWe have to be careful during our repair works A lot of places we have to go to are risky especially at night Considering all that we have suggested to Darade that he have a security guard alongrdquo said an official from the road departmentAnother said ldquoDarade is one the most efficient and active officers in the civic body The placard incident has earned him bad publicity And there is always the threat of a repeat by MNS workersrdquoThe official added that if there is a problem in providing a security guard at least a constable should be deployed after consulting the policePublic humiliationTwo weeks ago when Darade was in his office at Worli Deshpande and Dhuri asked Darade to come along to inspect potholed roads in Dadar After they reached Dadar Deshpande and Dhuri with other party workers forced him to hold the placard and stand on the roadDarade had condemned the act and called the incident ldquohumiliatingrdquo saying it was done for cheap publicity On the day of incident he had said ldquoI work more than 15 hours a day and give my best This has tarnished my image and earned me and my family bad publicity in spite of doing my job honestlyrdquoDarade had then filed a complaint at Shivaji Park police station The engineers union had staged a protest and gone on strike for two days This had led to action against both corporators who were arrested by the police and released on bail laterInspection timeOn Monday municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta and chief engineer Sanjay Darade took stock of the ongoing road repair and pothole filling work at SV Road in Bandra Shraddhanand Road in Vile Parle NC Phadke Marg in Andheri and a road in Goregaon Mehta will visit the eastern suburbs soon too Yuva Sena chief Aaditya Thackeray Mayor Snehal Ambekar and Standing Committee Chairman Yashodhar Phanse have also planned to check the progress of the work being carried out1004Number of roads that will be repaired till next May