BENGALURU: Two out of 54 Chief Engineers in PWD and Water Resources Department are from non-technical background. They are incharge posts. As the state government is yet to finalise the list of Chief Engineers, junior level officials with non-engineering background are holding these top posts as additional charge in these two departments. In fact, 21 such posts are managed by “in-charge” Chief Engineers.
Sources said in many cases, officials from corporations and Boards are deputed as Chief Engineer (in-charge). “There is a High Court order that such officials cannot be deputed to PWD and Water Works. Only engineers in PWD-related departments can take charge,’’ sources said.
An official said that in-charge engineers do not have powers to call for tender like a full-time Chief Engineer. “And because of this many construction works like road, bridge or canal work will be stalled. We tend to lose many big World Bank-funded projects as we fail to complete work on time,’’ he said.
Normally, executive engineers prepare the plan, superintending engineers examining it and it is the Chief Engineer who has to approve it before calling for tender. In the absence of full-time Chief Engineers, the in-charge CE who will be either the executive engineer or superintending engineer, will end up doing both the roles.M Lakshminarayana, Principal Secretary, PWD, said, “We have submitted the seniority list to DPAR, it is up to them.’’