Additional Municipal Commissioner Deepak Kapoor today told media persons that he would soon submit a draft proposal to the Municipal Commissioner and, following approval from him, would activate the squad to check alleged malpractices and ensure quality civic works.

Kapoor said he intended to have two senior officers of the rank of deputy city engineer and an accounts personnel in the squad. The deputy city engineers would be preferably drawn from the water supply and building control departments since maximum number of complaints were related to these projects.

The squad would also comprise other senior technical personnel of the level of junior engineers from other civic departments. It would function directly under control of either the municipal commissioner or additional municipal commissioner, according to Kapoor.

Meanwhile, the inquiries initiated by Kapoor into the incident have further revealed that the water supply works which is widely believed to have led to a dispute between the victim, junior engineer (water supply) Arvind V Shinde attached to the Bhavani Peth divisional ward office, and the unidentified corporator were underway in Ward No. 76 (Parshi Agyari). Interestingly, this ward is represented by Umakant Andekar, a close relative of Mayor Vatsala Andekar.

Kapoor said half the job of laying the water supply conduits and erecting a shed over a public tap had already been completed by the contractor, Suresh Jagannath Agarwal. However, the payments for the work had been frozen following the alleged incident that had maligned the image of PMC.

Referring to the statement issued by the PMC engineers' association condemning the incident, Kapoor said he fully agreed with their demands that nobody, regardless of his status as civic officer, corporator or contractor be spared if found involved in the incident and that the city police initiate a thorough investigation into the incident since it was not an isolated case of assault but a public offense that was going to have major repercussions on the day-to-day functioning of the civic administration.

Replying to a query, Kapoor said he may make a formal request to the police to conduct full-fledged investigations but after the civic inquiry is completed within the stipulated eight days. The controversial junior engineer had resumed duty yesterday and was asked to give a written explanation about the incident. Shirke made an unsuccessful attempt to seek an audience with Kapoor this afternoon but the annoyed officer insisted on a written explanation from him.