Civic engineers not to go on strike against mayor
The SWD engineers Tuesday met BMC commissioner Praveen Pardeshi to complain about the incident but the commissioner told them to resume work.
Mumbai: Officials of the stormwater drains (SWD) department of the BMC refused claims of an ongoing strike or staging a protest despite the verbal spat and alleged manhandling between the mayor of Mumbai Vishwanath Mahadeshwar and the chief engineer.
The SWD engineers Tuesday met BMC commissioner Praveen Pardeshi to complain about the incident but the commissioner told them to resume work. “We were not on protest but just wanted to communicate the incident to the commissioner,” said a senior officer of the SWD department.
About water logging at Kalanagar, a senior officer said, “We have taken several measures including widening at chamdawadi nullah which will also give relief. We have laid trenches and will soon install a box drain near the Indian Oil gate which will bring further relief. The nearby slums throw garbage every day which clogs the nullah.”
The actual incident took place at around 11.30 pm Monday when Mr Mahadeshwar called for an immediate spot visit near Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s house Matoshree in Bandra.
The visit was to take an update as to why the area near Matoshree faced water logging despite several measures having been taken to prevent the same. During the visit, there was an argument between chief engineer Vidyadhar Khandkar and the mayor. Allegedly, a person accompanying the mayor also manhandled Mr Khandkar.