Protest in Bundi as minister 'slaps' engineers

KOTA: Employees of Jaipur Discom including the engineers in Bundi district, on Wednesday boycotted work demanding action against state sports minister Ashok Chandana for allegedly slapping, thrashing and abusing executive engineer of the department. The striking employees later in the afternoon took out a rally against the delay in lodging case against the minister and submitted memorandum to district collector demanding filing FIR against the minister.

The incident of alleged slapping and abusing of the Discom engineer occurred at around 9pm on Monday near Keero Ki Jhopadia village on NH-148D but it came to light on Tuesday afternoon when the victim engineer submitted a complaint against state’s sports minister Ashok Chandana in Nainwa police station.

“No case has been registered so far as the investigation into the allegations levelled by the Discom engineer against the state sports minister is underway,” the SHO said. Chandana was reportedly annoyed of executive engineer Jagdish Prasad Meena who on February 13 ordered lineman Mukesh Saini to join his duty after minister Ashok Chandana during a public hearing in the area on February 5 ordered for his suspension on receipt of complaint against him.

Meanwhile, speaking to TOI , executive engineer J.P. Meena alleged the sports minister hatched a conspiracy to attack him. “Had the SE and other engineers had not intervened to defend me, the minister would have taken my life,” J P Meena said. Only the four engineers with him including the SE were eyewitness to the incident, he said.

But the state minister for sports Ashok Chandana in a statement refuting allegations of assault on the engineer accepted that he did speak harsh words to him and slammed him for revoking suspension of the linesman without any inquiry.

“The linesman was suspended following complaints by the villagers. But within ten days he was reinstated without conducting an enquiry.” He said he would not tolerate injustice to the people who had elected him as their representative with thumping majority. He alleged that during BJP rule the employees used to bribe local BJP leaders at the expense of the people and these corrupt officials are now feeling uneasy.