Faridabad officer fined Rs 5K for not addressing plaint on damaged manhole cover

Bijendra Ahlawat

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Faridabad, March 31

The Haryana Rights to Service Commission (HRTSC) has imposed a penalty of Rs 5,000 on a junior engineer (JE) of the Municipal Corporation of Faridabad (MCF) for not resolving a complaint filed regarding a broken manhole cover. The commission found that the official failed to resolve the complaint in specified time period. A warning has also been issued to two senior officials in this regard.

The HRTSC, in a March 23 order, has directed the MCF Commissioner to deduct the fine from the salary of JE Vikram and deposit the amount in the state treasury with intimation to the Commission. A local resident, Vishal Rawat, had filed the complaint on November 2, 2022. He alleged that he had filed a complaint regarding the issue with the MCF, and also through the Faridabad 311 app.

The commission demanded a report and explanation in the matter from the MCF. It was informed on January 9 that the complaint had been attended to, but the broken cover was still at the spot.

A notice was served on the JE concerned. Vikram in his reply blamed the contractor who was given the work for replacing the manhole covers. He added that the matter had been in the notice of the Executive Engineer and the Assistant Engineer. The Commission in its order stated that the reason provided failed to justify the delay and lack of action.

A local resident said this might be the first instance of the imposition of penalty for not resolving such civic grievance in a given time-frame. Sources claimed that nearly 3,000, out of the total 90,000 manhole covers were lying open or damaged. “We have flagged more than 150 such manholes in the past one year,” SK Sharma, member of the NGO ‘Road Safety Organisation’, said.