Diploma holder civil engineers up in arms

Ludhiana, December 7

The Council of Engineers, a private body, has sent a legal notice to the Principal Secretary and Additional Chief Secretary of the Department of Local Government for allegedly deleting the qualification and competency of diploma holder civil engineers from annexure-IV of the Punjab Model Building Bylaws-2018.

The diploma holders practice as supervisors and prepare building plans which were to be submitted with local bodies since the inception of building bylaws in Punjab. “The word ‘supervisor’ is mentioned numerous times as well as in various forms of notification but they have intentionally deleted the qualification and competency in annexure-IV of notification. Even in various form A, B and E of the aforesaid notification, supervisor has been given authority to sign the documents.

From this, it seems that the aforesaid act has been deliberately done by the department which has directly affected hundreds of diploma holders,” said Kapil Arora, president, Council of Engineers.

“The association has given 10 days time to the department to rectify the mistake or else we will knock the doors of the High Court. The department said Council of Engineers had admitted that besides, architects, engineers and supervisors were also eligible to register online and can submit building plans for approvals. However, the department in contradiction to its own reply has deleted the qualification and competency of supervisors,” said Arora. — TNS