A government engineer in Bihar found it safer to hide himself away — unknown even to his own family and strengthening their fear about his abduction — for three days after being harassed by unscrupulous contractors and criminals pressurising him to pass fake bills for work in the PMGSY road schemes.
Surendra Kumar Singh, an executive engineer of Bihar’s Rural Engineering Organisation (REO) posted in Muzaffarpur to supervise the construction of roads under the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sarak Yojna, remained mysteriously underground for three days since Sunday. His distraught wife Shikha Singh suspected he might have been abducted because, as she said, he received constant threats over phone from contractors and criminals ever since the state government released `54 crores for disbursement for the road works in areas under his jurisdiction. His trouble began after he refused to reimburse contractors before inspecting the construction work they claimed to have completed at 258 sites. He had taken charge in Muzaffarpur district on February 10 and was under pressure to make payments to contractors by February 28. Even as the police deployed security around his house, Mr Singh quietly turned up at the house late on Wednesday evening and said he had himself went underground.