After mid-day reported on how BMC published phone numbers of road engineers in a bid to attend to potholes, they will now be issued new SIM cards, after some were harassed by citizens' calls
After mid-day reported on how the BMC had published the phone numbers of road engineers in a bid to attend to potholes, the civic body will now issue new SIM cards to them, after some were harassed by citizens’ calls. In one case, a female engineer had even got a message with a personal tone. This prompted the department to issue the new cards. However, almost Rs 3 lakh spent on publishing the ad have gone waste. The civic body will once again spend on another ad.
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Also read: 'We didn't know!': BMC engineers shocked at their numbers being made public
The High Court on July 16 directed the BMC to make the phone numbers of all its road engineers public. The directive apparently came after complaints of the BMC’s app for pothole repairs being dysfunctional. Therefore, the BMC, on July 22, published the numbers of 40 engineers across 24 wards. But when mid-day called up the engineers, we found out most did not know their personal numbers were going to be published. While senior civic officials are provided official numbers by the BMC, junior-level officials are not. That is why, in most cases, personal numbers were seen in the ads.
Calls at odd hours
A road engineer, Vrushali Ghodekar, from T ward got a message which read, “Where are you? Why don’t you respond? (Tu kuthe aahes? Respond ka karat nahi?) Although the message was personal, it fell short of being vulgar. That is why we did not file a police complaint,” said Prashant Sapkale, assistant municipal commissioner, T ward. Ghodekar refused to speak to mid-day.
Other engineers have also been getting calls and messages at odd hours. mid-day had also reported how a road engineer from R/South ward had written to his seniors that he would not be responsible for attending to complaints on his personal number.
In some cases, engineers whose numbers were given were on leave, in others, they were transferred. The BMC will be issuing new SIM cards to road engineers, and once the numbers are activated, a new list will be prepared.
A senior civic official said, “We are issuing new SIM cards and handsets to our engineers, one for each ward. Once that is done, the revised numbers will be published by Sunday.”
The BMC spent Rs 2.98 lakh on the previous ad. A similar amount will be spent again for the advertisement.
When asked about this, the official said, “We gave the numbers in haste as per HC orders. It was in public interest.”
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