Following a vigilance investigation into roads that were damaged during the 2017 monsoon, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) fined 23 engineers in its engineering department a total of Rs 53.63 lakh for their mistakes.
AMC sent show-cause warnings to 87 engineers and fined them after the Gujarat high court ordered an investigation into 110 engineers. According to the reports, 23 engineers in total received charge sheets, including four deputy city engineers, three extra city engineers, eight assistant city engineers, and eight assistant engineers. They were questioned about why six increments of their wages’ worth of money shouldn’t be taken out of their compensation.
AMC reported that the vigilance investigation and Phase IV departmental actions against these engineers were concluded and that the civic body had penalised this 23 incompetent personnel in its bimonthly progress report, which the high court had requested it to provide. Eight assistant engineers received a fine of Rs. 10.34 lakh, eight assistant city engineers received a fine of Rs. 13.36 lakh, four deputy city engineers received a fine of Rs. 12.88 lakh and three additional city engineers received a fine of Rs. 17.4 lakh.
In response to a PIL filed by Mustak Kadri through attorney Amit Panchal stating that city roads were seriously damaged during the 2017 monsoon and the administration failed to either develop suitable roads or maintain them, the city body was required to take action against its officers. The high court ordered action against people in 2018 who were in charge of the subpar building of city roads and provided several directives to agencies for adequate maintenance of roadways.
