Chennai has place for overflowing streets, but none for IAS officer who warned about it

Chennai, Dec 4: In the dawn of Chennai debacle, the residents of the city may have remembered IAS officer Vijay Pingale's words a thousand times and thought 'What if'.

What is gone is gone, but Chennites can now build upon what he had warned of. An MBBS graduate and an honest officer at the Corporation of Chennai, Pingale had cried hoarse at the shoddy work that the corporators and contractors are doing on the roads.

As a result, he was shunted about just 3 weeks back. The fact that he received his transfer orders just three days after he revealed the names of the corrupt contractors is no coincidence. Pingale was known for his raids and unravelling of corruption in the department as the joint commissioner.

Secret sources said that the contractor lobby was responsible for the decision to move Pingale out of the Corporation.

On Nov 11, he along with his aides made the names of 9 collectors public and had instructed them to reimburse Rs 2 crore for repairs it carried out on stretches laid by them. He had also said that the number of names were likely to rise and that the amount of penalties were likely to go up too. This infuriated the contractors and he was transferred just 3 days after the incident.

His aides claim that his transfer would affect the city's development as he was spearheading a number of projects beginning state-of-art toilets for public, footpaths and roads.

He was said to be an honest IAS officer who made the contractors accountable for their work, hence reducing corruption. Second to commissioner Vikram Kapur, Pingale was responsible for some of the most important projects that included roads, buildings, bridges, solid waste management, storm water drains, electrical, mechanical engineering, planning and investigation.

High time, the citizens woke up to the administration and demand answers for its actions!

OneIndia News