Agartala: The Power Engineers’ Association of Tripura on Tuesday demanded a public apology from Deputy Speaker of the state assembly Biswa Bandhu Sen for his insulting remarks against the engineers’ fraternity last week in a public meeting.
They sought the attention of Speaker Ratan Chakraborty, Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha, and Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma who is also holding the charge of Power department, and urged them to resolve the issue at the quickest possible time.
In a public gathering while addressing Sen targeted the engineers and said, “The engineers working in PWD and power department are thieves and a section of them have actively been trying to malign the image of the state government. After BJP returns to power next year with a thumping majority such conspiracies would not be tolerated”.
The association maintained that engineers have been working for the development of the state as responsible technocrats to execute the government’s mission and if there is an individual case of derailment in duty – provisions are there to punish them.
Instead, such a derogatory statement from an elected representative is most unfortunate and shameful.
“This statement would not only demoralize the engineers but also lower down the status of engineers in the society, which would certainly have an ill effect on the development process,” the association mentioned in the statement.
It, however, added that the allegation of the Deputy Speaker was contrary to the government, as last week during the celebration of Engineers’ Day on Sept 15 Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister, and Information Minister Sushanta Chowdhury acknowledged the relentless efforts and dedication of state engineers in delivering the government projects.
However, despite several attempts, Deputy Speaker was not accessible for his comment. Neither the BJP party nor the assembly Secretariat agreed to respond to the controversial statement of the Deputy Speaker.
In August last year, Tripura Employees Coordination Committee had lodged a complaint with West Agartala Police Station against Sen accusing him of instigating the BJP cadres to “break the bones” of the government employees, as according to him a section of the employees had been conspiring against Biplab Kumar Deb government.
However, police couldn’t register the case, as they didn’t get the ascent of the assembly Speaker, police sources said. The engineers’ body further alleged that as many as three government employees posted in Dharmanagar in North Tripura were assaulted by unruly cadres of BJP followed by the speech of Biswabandhu Sen.
