New Delhi, March 22 (IANS) A day after ordering the suspension of a lax engineer, Delhi PWD Minister Parvesh Verma on Saturday recommended the transfer of a Delhi Jal Board engineer on Saturday and announced a four-digit helpline — 1908 — for receiving public complaints related to PWD roads.
He also informed people that complaints related to dirty water or blocked sewage can be filed on helpline 1916.
Reacting to the action ordered by him against erring officials, he said the BJP government wants to work with the existing team of officials, but they will face the music if found wanting in their commitment to perform for public welfare.
“The official whose transfer I suggested today during the inspection was reeking of alcohol during my early morning inspection,” he said.
Elaborating on the reasons for replacing the 10-digit PWD helpline with a four-digit one, he wrote in a post on X, “A month ago when I took the first meeting of the PWD department, and I asked them about the helpline number of department. Not even one of the 20 senior officers could tell the number. They searched the files and then found out the number to be 1800110093.”
He criticised the previous AAP government for opting for a 10-digit helpline number which was difficult to remember.
The Minister said he approached the Government of India to give a four-digit helpline number and Delhi was allotted 1908 for PWD.
Verma hit out at the AAP leader Atishi for allegedly accusing him of browbeating officials. “Our purpose is to work for people and what she is saying is of no significance,” he said during an inspection.
The Minister visited the Tri Nagar and Madipur constituencies in the morning and directed officials to purchase one “super sucker” machine for sewer cleaning in each constituency. “Currently, the Delhi Jal Board has a limited number of such machines,” he said.
Earlier on Friday, the minister advised officials to take speedy action on complaints brought to their notice by all legislators.
He also suspended an executive engineer in East Delhi after he detected laxity in the maintenance of a drainage line and roads in Patparganj along the NH9 service lane.
–IANS
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