Executive Engineer seeks police protection to complete road repair

Puri, Jun 10 (UNI) The executive engineer of the Puri works department has sought police protection for staff engaged in road repairing work to complete it before the famous car festival.

The engineer alleged that some miscreants having allegiance to the ruling party were attacking the engineers and workers on duty and disrupting the work.

He feared that the road repairing would not be completed before the car festival if police protection was not given.

He said on the night of June 7 some goons attacked the engineers and staff engaged in road repair work near the south gate area of the Sri Jagannath temple and damaged some equipment.

He said this was not an isolated incident as a number of engineers were physically abused by some contractors for not obliging them in passing false bills.

He said police was doing little to curb these incidents.

According to sources a number of local contractors close to a BJD politician used to take repairing work of the city road and make false bills amounting to lakhs of rupees.

However, this time the Public Works department decided to do the work itself. The decision hurt the interest of the contractors who were attacking the enginers and the staff.

Meanwhile in response to the request, the Puri district Superintendent of Police had agreed to provide security personnel to the PWD staff engaged in road repairing work, the sources said.

UNI XC-BD KK NY HT2010