Civic chief Gaurav Gupta withdraws Ashok Bagi’s temporary appointment to TEC
BENGALURU:
After the controversy over Executive Engineer-on-deputation Ashok Bagi’s threat to sue ex-corporator and the BJP’s Bengaluru South leader NR Ramesh over the latter’s remarks about Bagi, BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta has withdrawn Bagi’s appointment as Executive Engineer in-charge of the Traffic Engineering Cell and has appointed Praveen Lingaiah in the position.
Lingaiah will come under the Road Infrastructure division, among whose priorities are pothole repairs and traffic-related issues in the city. The entire Road Infrastructure division comes under IAS officer Manoz Jain, Special Commissioner (Projects) in BBMP.
Also SWM in-charge
Lingaiah has worked in the Traffic Engineering Cell, and was later moved to solid waste management (SWM). He continues to hold concurrent charge of SWM but will now have to give more of his time to the TEC.
As per sources, Lingaiah’s appointment comes after BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta directed his team to make appropriate changes so that the rules are followed in terms of postings.
Ramesh’s objection
Former BJP corporator and the BJP’s South Bengaluru president NR Ramesh had raised an objection to the appointment of Ashok Bagi, who is on deputation to BBMP from the state Irrigation Department.
Bagi was given the Assistant Executive Engineer’s post under rule 32 of the C&R rules but was also given the in-charge Executive Engineer’s post of the TEC on Chief Engineer BS Prahallad’s recommendation on September 1, 2021.
Ramesh had opposed Bagi’s elevation to the post of Executive Engineer.
Subsequently, Bagi had issued a lawyer’s notice to Ramesh, threatening to file a defamation suit of Rs 10 crore against him.
Also Read: Karnataka officer threatens to file Rs 10 crore defamation suit against BJP leader NR Ramesh
