The engineers of municipal corporation went on mass casual leave to mark their protest against the FIR registered against the junior engineer (JE) and sub-divisional officer (SDO) of the civic body after the death of a sewer man Surinder Kumar, who entered a manhole in Abdullahpur Basti on Saturday.
The police had registered a case under section 304 A and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against the JE and SDO of the area on Sunday. Members of the Municipal Corporation Engineers Association, Punjab, demanded to cancel the FIR against these officials.
Association general secretary Sunil Kumar Sharma said, “We went on mass casual leave to mark our protest against the FIR registered against our JE and SDO, who are actually not responsible for the sewer man's death. The inquiry should be conducted before launching FIR.”
“We are already facing staff crunch. In the department of operations and maintenance, there are only two JEs, while 20 posts are lying vacant. The JE had sent the sewer man only to redress a complaint, then how they can be held responsible?,” he said.
Iqbal Singh, a junior engineer, said, “We will continue the protest until the FIR against the officials is not cancelled. We have sympathy with the family of Surinder Kumar.”
{{/usCountry}}Iqbal Singh, a junior engineer, said, “We will continue the protest until the FIR against the officials is not cancelled. We have sympathy with the family of Surinder Kumar.”
{{/usCountry}}Kumar said that they will organise a rally outside Zone-A office on Thursday. Meanwhile, the work was affected, as the engineers went on casual leave.