Transfers of engineers, renovations of houses among MPs’ requests to CPWD 

As a part of special drive, CPWD asked to address pending “VIP references” 

The Central Public Works Department on August 10 asked its regional offices to pay “special attention” to pending complaints from “VIPs”, including Union Ministers and MPs, with requests for transfer of engineers being the most common reference.

In an office memorandum to all regional offices, the chief engineer for the CPWD’s parliamentary matters cell requested that “special attention may please be given to these cases and reply/action taken report may be submitted at the earliest”.

The government had started a special campaign in October 2021 to dispose of MP references, assurances in Parliament and public grievances. The Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions had on June 15 asked the ministries that had less than 35% disposal rate of references in the identified categories to act on them. The CPWD had 42 “MP references” pending, a letter by the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry to the CPWD on August 5 said.

Among the “VIPs” who sought transfers, posting, retention and appointment of individual engineers and other CPWD staff were BJP MPs Dr. Satya Pal Singh, Ajay Nishad, Mohan Mandavi and Manoj Tiwari, and Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Meenakshi Lekhi and Arjun Ram Meghwal.

Former Congress MP Pawan Kumar Bansal had a pending complaint since September 2021 about replacing the wooden flooring at Vir Bhoomi, the memorial to late former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary had a pending complaint about civil and electrical work at the house allotted to him on KG Marg in Delhi. Lok Sabha MPs Dr. Bhartiben Shiyal and Diya Kumari had complaints regarding white-washing and “power cut problem” respectively at the homes allotted to them. Ladakh Lieutenant-Governor Radha Krishna Mathur had a pending reference on “development of the Eastern Ladakh border area”, according to the list of pending complaints.