BMC engineers adopt 'work to rule' over arrest of 2 colleagues

Around 500 engineers of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) have adopted 'work to rule' to express their resentment over the recent arrest of two chief engineers in the alleged road scam.
The engineers, mainly belonging to roads department, said by adopting 'work to rule' from yesterday, they have decided to work as per the set rules and not work after office timings.
They said they would now stop work at 5.30 pm sharp and not work beyond that irrespective of the urgency of carrying out the repair work, even as the roads have deteriorated during the monsoon.
Almost thousands of engineers, working in different departments of the civic body, had staged a demonstration at Azad Maidan yesterday and passed a resolution to work according to rule.

"From now onwards, we have decided to work only between 8.30 am and 5.30 pm. We would stop work at 5.30 pm and leave immediately, irrespective of the status of the roads," Sukhdev Kashid, secretary of Municipal Engineers Association in BMC, said.
"Earlier, our over-burdened staff normally used to work from 8 am to 9 pm, but this won't happen now since we have decided to work for prescribed duty hours," he said.

Two chief engineers Ashok Padamsingh Pawar (roads), and Uday Namdeo Murudkar (vigilance), were arrested last week by the SIT formed to probe the road scam. Both were later suspended after the preliminary inquiry report came out.

Kashid alleged that the BMC administration was resorting to double standards while dealing with the officers and only non-influential officers "were being made scapegoat".
"Their arrest and suspension have been made in a very unprofessional manner and without a proper inquiry. We are paying the price of commitment towards our work and henceforth, we will not let it happen," he said.
"Our road department need at least 800 engineers to maintain and superwise the roads. However, we have only 132 engineers, who are working more than 10 to 11 hours everyday. Each engineer has been burdened to look after eight to ten roads and they are going extra mile to meet the target," he said.

"A delegation of engineers was scheduled to meet the Additional Municipal Commissioner to end the deadlock, but association called off their meeting. We want our problems and demands to be addressed with senior most authorities," said Kashid.
He said action should be taken against the senior civic officials, who headed the roads department during the alleged scam.