A Chief Engineer of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) had allegedly assaulted husband of a company’s managing director and a director during the meeting with them on fixing rate to make payment to the company, which was given a contract to fill potholes on 182-kilometre stretch of city’s roads, the High Court of Karnataka was told on Tuesday.
Chief Engineer (Road and Infrastructure) B.S. Prahalad punched and pushed the husband of the MD of city-based American Technology and Solutions Ltd. and another director of the company on May 27 during a meeting, senior advocate Jayna Kothari, appearing for the company, told the High Court of Karnataka, while submitting a copy of the complaint sent to BBMP’s Chief Commissioner in this regard.
A Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and Justice Ashok S. Kinagi, before whom these submissions were made during a hearing on PIL petitions on the condition of city roads, has directed the BBMP to inform the court about the action taken on the complaint.
The Bench also directed the company to submit the details of the assault in the form of an affidavit.
The advocate also told the Bench that the company had already filled potholes on the 182-kilometre stretch of roads but it has not received any payment from the BBMP.
Meanwhile, the Bench directed the Chief Commissioner to personally appear on June 6, the next date of hearing, as the BBMP had failed to submit a report on the progress in pothole-filling works as well as the outcome of the Chief Commissioner’s deliberation on the dispute with the company over the rate for pothole filling.
The court on April 21 directed the company to immediately start the pothole-filling works and directed the Chief Commissioner to look into the dispute raised by the company on the lower rate fixed by the BBMP for mechanised filling of potholes.
The company had claimed that it was entitled for ₹1,249 per hour as per the Public Works Department’s Common Schedule of Rates, Technical Working Group, but the BBMP had said that this rate is not applicable for the job assigned to the company.
