CHENNAI: After putting up a banner threatening to expose “corrupt” engineers in the Public Works Department (PWD), the Tamil Nadu PWD Contractors (Engineering) Association on Saturday submitted a list of ten “top most” corrupt engineers to the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-corruption and demanded action against them.
Last Wednesday, the association placed a banner near the PWD headquarters in Chepauk threatening to release a list of most corrupt engineers. Their accusation was not about the usual cut which any contractor is supposed to pay the engineers but the sudden hike in the bribe demand. “It is an unwritten rule that contractors must pay a percentage of the total project cost to the engineers who sanction the work. But what is worrying us is that a few of them have suddenly increased the percentage putting us in extreme difficulty in carrying out government projects,” said S Gunamani, president of the association.
A deputy superintendent of police met members of the association in the DVAC headquaters on Greenways Road and collected the list from them. The list, a copy of which was released to the media, contained names of officials serving in various wings of PWD. Mobile numbers of a few of them were also mentioned. “If these ten engineers are removed, it will bring much relief to the contractors as they are the main persons behind hiking the bribe demand,” Gunamani said.