New Delhi
Delhi Public Works Department (PWD) minister Parvesh Verma on Friday ordered the suspension of the executive engineer in charge of East Vinod Nagar, Patparganj, for alleged negligence in the timely cleaning of drains.
The minister was inspecting road repairs done over the past month in Trilokpuri and Patparganj when he noticed that the drain along the road had overgrowth, was not cleaned and desilted, and had turned into a garbage dump.
“The maintenance of roads is done by PWD, and the cleaning of drains alongside PWD roads is also the responsibility of the same department. We saw that the drain cleaning was not done, and I have asked the executive engineer concerned to be suspended for negligence in his job,” Verma said.
The executive engineer was identified as Ramashish Singh. He did not respond to requests for comment.
Verma warned officials of stringent action over laxity in duty, and reiterated that they were to send weekly work reports to their seniors, who would compile it and send a final report to the minister.
“Officials have got used to not working and have become thick-skinned in the last 10 years. Delhi and its infrastructure are at the verge of nearly collapsing. This style of working cannot continue as we are committed to improving the crumbling infrastructure of the national capital. Even the ministers are all on the streets and working over 20 hours. We will make the same officials work to fix the issues,” Verma said.
The minister said that inspections would continue and that sewage treatment plants are currently being inspected to verify if they were meeting the quality standards and working at full capacity. He said a review is also being done every three days to check the implementation of a summer action plan. All progress reports of the department will be put online for the public to take stock of work through a dashboard, he said.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Atishi slammed the BJP government and the ministers for “abusing” their officers by threatening suspension and “forcing them to pay commission” within a month of coming to power. Responding to the allegations of commission demands, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said Atishi should either apologise or be prepared to face legal action.
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