Cuttack: In a novel protest against corruption, a Congress leader of Odisha went to give a bagful of vegetables to an executive engineer as bribe for construction of a road in a locality in Cuttack city.
Cuttack district unit president of Congress Manas Choudhury, accompanied by some party workers, went to the office chamber of Executive Engineer, Prachi Division, Pratap Chandra Choudhury with the vegetables and put those on his desk. He told the executive engineer to accept the vegetables as PC (percentage) towards the road work.
Speaking to the media persons present there, the Congress leader said, “I had requested the executive engineer to construct a road to Khandaita village in the city where around 50 poor families are living. Though the road work was started, it stopped midway and the rest 400-metre road has not been completed till date.”
“Later, one of the villagers went to meet the executive engineer to enquire about the road work. Instead of considering the request of the villager, the engineer wanted to know why Manas Choudhury was putting pressure on him and demanded bribe to complete the work,” he added.
The villager, who went with the Congress leader, also took off his pant and shirt and put those on the engineer’s table. He told the engineer to accept those as bribe since he was a poor farmer and cannot give money.
The Congress leader also said this is just ‘trailer’ of his party’s campaign against corruption in government offices. “I will undress the government official who will demand PC for any work for public welfare and makes him walk on the streets,” he threatened.
On the other hand, the executive engineer refuted the allegation of the Congress leader and said he was never informed about the road works. However, he assured that the road would be laid within a week.
