Aggrieved by the insatiable greed of the bureaucrats and officials in the Public Works Department of the State, Tamil Nadu PWD Contractors Association has devised a strategy to fight this evil which has been eating into the fabric of the society. The association has decided to declare the names of the top 10 corrupt PWD engineers in flex hoardings to be installed all over the State.
The first such board made a brief appearance in Chennai city on Wednesday without the names of the “Top 10”. “This is only a warning. Next time we put up the board, it certainly will have the names of the top most corrupt engineers in the department,” S Gunamani, the association president, told The Pioneer.
The Chennai Police saved the engineers from further embarrassment by getting the flex board removed immediately. But what followed was more damaging to the entire reputation of the PWD. A telephonic conversation, allegedly between a government contractor by Krishnamoorthy and an assistant engineer of the PWD posted at Stanley Medical College went viral in the social media.
The conversation featuring Sridhar, an assistant executive engineer and Krishnamoorthy, a PWD contractor revolves around Rs30,000 the latter has to pay the higher ups as commission for a work completed at Government Stanley Medical College in Chennai. Sridhar is upset that Krishnamoorthy did not pick up the phone wen the former rang him up many times. “Krishnamoorthy, you are a good contractor. But you should have the basic courtesy to pick up the phone when I ring you up. Now please speed up the payment of the money. Bosses are pressurising me because you have failed to pay the money,” says the voice reportedly belonging to Sridhar.
The assistant executive engineer warns Krishnamoorthy that if the latter fails to pay the money, he does not have any other alternative other than committing suicide. “Ill be forced to commit suicide like Muthukumarasamy of the agricultural department,” warns the voice of Sridhar.
Muthukumarasamy of the agricultural department committed suicide in February 2015 due to mental torture allegedly by the then minister of agriculture SS Krishnamoorthy who pressurised the former for appointing persons of his choice in the department as drivers. It was alleged by the Opposition that Krishnamoorthy had taken money from prospective applicants promising them jobs as drivers. But Muthukumarasamy refused to toe the line of the minister and went by the rule book. Following the suicide by Muthukumarasamy, the minister who was dropped from the council of ministers and an assistant executive engineer were arrested by the police and are cooling their heels in prison.
Speaking to The Pioneer, Krishnamoorthy said he had completed civil works to the tune of Rs3,00000/- at Stanley Medical College. “The bill has been cleared and I am being asked to pay the 10 per cent commission,” he said. According to Gunamani, the engineers charge up to 40 per cent of the total estimated cost as commission to be paid to the “higher ups”.