Mumbai: The Municipal Engineers Association (MEA) is demanding putting a stop to the ongoing SIT inquiry pertaining to Covid-19 expenditure. The association said that senior engineers are being called at the SIT office and made sit for the entire day. They lamented that they don’t get time to do public work assigned to them.
In a letter to Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, the association has stated that engineers, officers and directors are afraid of the current inquiry. Ramesh Bhutekar-Deshmukh, the association’s vice-president, said, “Earlier, engineers had helped the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) with the inquiry. Now they are helping the Enforcement Directorate and the SIT. The BMC has already submitted relevant documents that were sought and yet they continued to get called in at the SIT office to explain technical terms.”
Letter Points Out Dedication Of BMC Engineers During COVID-19 Pandemic
As per the letter, when the Covid-19 pandemic was at its peak, BMC engineers, officers and workers ignored the danger to their own lives and families. Over 350 BMC employees, including one deputy commissioner and an assistant commissioner, lost their lives. Besides, nearly 10,000 BMC employees were infected. The officers spent their entire day at Covid centres, tracing the patients and helping to isolate them. “After putting efforts at such a level, inquiries are irritating the officers. They had done whatever was best and suitable at that time,” the letter stated.
MEA president Mahabal Shetty has said in the letter that many Central and state government officers were at home at that time and even the Prime Minister praised the BMC’s work, and yet initiated an inquiry against them, which is not a good gesture.
