Ludhiana: Ludhiana Municipal Corporation (LMC) engineers today went on casual leave en masse to protest the suspension of four superintendenting engineers (SEs) over alleged irregularities in work allotment. The SEs, posted at different corporations in Punjab, were suspended on the orders of state Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu yesterday for allegedly alloting civil works on a single bid.

Ludhiana: Ludhiana Municipal Corporation (LMC) engineers today went on casual leave en masse to protest the suspension of four superintendenting engineers (SEs) over alleged irregularities in work allotment. The SEs, posted at different corporations in Punjab, were suspended on the orders of state Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu yesterday for allegedly alloting civil works on a single bid. 

"Engineers have gone on a mass casual leave. In a meeting held here it was decided that they would not work today and tomorrow," General Secretary of the Punjab Municipal Engineers Association, Sunil Sharma, said. After the meeting representatives of other municipal corporation (MC) employees associations also assured their full support and termed the minister's action as "unwanted", he claimed.

Sharma said an "inexperienced" Sidhu was just playing to the gallery and claimed that all the four SEs were innocent and had done nothing illegal. "They have acted on the orders of a committee which was formed by the state government under the leadership of respective deputy commissioners," he said. All the employees of the LMC, including class four and safai mazdoors, will hold a joint protest rally here on Monday, Sharma announced.

He claimed that employees in Jalandhar, Amritsar, Bathinda and Mohali also protested today against the orders by Sidhu. They demanded the immediate withdrawal of these orders, he added. Sidhu had said that out of work orders of Rs 800 crore, Rs 500 crore were allotted on a single bid. PTI