Posters allege engineers demand monthly bribes from subordinates

Chennai: Posters alleging large-scale corruption by a civic engineer mushroomed near the entry and exit gates of Ripon Buildings on Friday raising eyebrows of corporation officials and councillors arriving for the council meet.

The posters put up by a former councillor and advocate Prabhu alleged that engineers were demanding monthly bribes from their subordinates. The situation is worse in zone 6 (Thiru Vi Ka Nagar) where an engineer demands Rs 20,000 from conservancy supervisors and Rs 10,000 from sanitary workers and those who do not fall in line are transferred. The poster also read that Dalit sanitary workers were being discriminated against.

Reacting to the issue, a senior official dismissed the posters as those put up by “vested interests.” Whenever, an engineer is strict with his subordinates, posters and pamphlets like these do appear in the vicinity of Ripon Buildings, particularly ahead of council meetings, he said.

Meanwhile, Chennai corporation council made an obituary references to councillor Mullai Gnanesekaran, who was hacked to death early this month. At one stage, a few women councilors broke down recalling their association with the former councilor who also enjoyed the warmth of Manali residents by attending to their grievances.  Both Mayor Saidai S. Duraisamy and DMK leader in the council Subash Chandra Bose heaped praise on Gnanesekaran as he was a friendly councillor with a clean political image.