Sarpanch’s video prompts action: JE terminated, SDE chargesheeted over ‘poor’ road quality in Mansa

Secretary of Punjab State Agricultural Marketing Board, Ramvir, has terminated an outsourced junior engineer (JE) and chargesheeted a sub-divisional engineer (SDE) after a sarpanch raised concerns over the quality of an under-construction road near Makha Chehlan village here. The 10.12-km road is being built at a cost of Rs 1.82 crore.

The sarpanch recently went live on social media, highlighting the road’s alleged poor quality and claiming that its surface was peeling off easily. The Chief Minister’s flying squad took note of the video, conducted a quality check, and subsequently initiated departmental action against the responsible officers.

Vipan Khanna, executive engineer, Punjab State Agricultural Marketing Board, Mansa, said, “The road is under construction. The issue erupted because of recent rain and change in weather. The secretary of the Punjab State Agricultural Marketing Board has terminated the services of the outsourced junior engineer, Gurpreet Singh, and chargesheeted sub-divisional engineer Chamkaur Singh over the quality of the road.”

He claimed that the complainant later realised the issue had occurred due to a change in weather and even uploaded a new video the next day.