After mid-day's report on 47 road engineers woken up on Friday by irate Mumbaikars calling their personal mobiles to protest bad roads, a defiant engineer shoots off letter to boss
It is going to be long while before Mumbai’s complaints about the abysmal state of its roads are addressed. The engineers whom the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has held responsible for listening to your road woes are busy venting their ire about their personal numbers being made public.
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mid-day had reported yesterday about how road engineers from 24 wards were woken up on Friday by irate citizens who had got their mobile numbers from an advertisement published by the BMC in newspapers. The advertisement had been put out following High Court directives to the BMC earlier this month that the names and numbers of all engineers responsible for bad roads be made public as the BMC’s mobile application MCGM24*7 is not functioning.
One angry engineer dashed off a letter to his boss, on Friday, saying he should not be held responsible for inaction on complaints received on his personal number. Sub-engineer Rakesh Chouhan's letter, addressed to assistant municipal commissioner, R-South ward, stated, “I should not be held responsible for complaints received on my personal phone, as the BMC administration did not take me into confidence before publishing my number to attend to public grievances. I have stopped using WhatsApp now. I could lose my mind attending to calls all day about bad roads.” mid-day is in possession of the letter.
Paver block potholes on Anik Road in Wadala. Pics/Atul Kamble
On Friday, when mid-day contacted Chauhan, he said, “Call me on my office number. My personal number has been published without my consent. Despite repeated attempts, Chouhan did not respond to phone calls and text messages yesterday. When contacted, assistant municipal commissioner R-South, Sahebrao Gaikwad, said, “I have received the letter from the sub-engineer. The letter has been forwarded to the chief engineer (roads).”
While the other engineers, too, are unhappy about their phone numbers being made public, they are circumspect about voicing their opinion.
When contacted, Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta said, “We were only following HC directives.”
Sainath Rajadhyaksha, general secretary, BMC engineer union association, said the BMC must have not informed the court that the engineers are not given official mobile numbers. “Left with no choice, the BMC published the personal numbers, which is not right," he said.
Another official who did not wish to be named, said, “If the engineers had done their job in the first place, there would have been no reason for such a step. The state of the roads is so bad that the High Court had to take suo motu cognisance and pass directives. The administration is only following court orders.”
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