Following the attack on a civic engineer in Dadar, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is considering taking legal action against MNS corporator Girish Dhanurkar and his supporters, who were allegedly involved in the incident.
Municipal commissioner Sitaram Kunte said, “Since Mr Dhanurkar was a nominated corporator, we will have to study the rules to see what action can be taken against him. We have asked our officials to initiate the process.”
On Friday, Rajesh Rathod, junior engineer (building and factory) of the G-North ward, was allegedly thrashed by Mr Dhanurkar and his supporters in the party office. The engineer was admitted to Sion Hospital. An FIR has been registered at Dadar police station by the BMC against Mr Dhanurkar under Section 353 (assaulting a public servant), Section 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), Section 506 (ii) (criminal intimidation), Section 341 (wrongful restraint), and Section 143 (unlawful assembly).
Meanwhile, civic engineers in G-North ward went on a strike in Dadar. They demanded immediate action against the accused corporator and his supporters.
In a letter written to the municipal commissioner, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Engineers Union (BMEU) has also demanded immediate disqualification of corporators or MLAs guilty of assaulting civic engineers.
Sainath Rajadhyaksha, general secretary of BMEU, said, “The corporator or MLA should be disqualified immediately if an FIR in such cases is registered. Assaulting municipal engineers should be made a non-bailable offence by bringing about necessary modification of the Act, as was done for doctors.”
According to the BMEU officials, in the last three years, more than 15 engineers have been assaulted by corporators and MLAs.