The top brass of the Bengal government has sent back a proposal to extend some service benefits to nearly 200 contractual engineers, leaving a section of officials apprehensive about the future of several projects they were monitoring.

The ad hoc engineers have been working with departments like public works, public health engineering (PHE) and irrigation for the past 11 years at a stretch without any pay hike.

“Recently, a file was put up proposing some service benefits for the contractual assistant and sub-assistant engineers serving the government for about 11 years without any break and a pay hike. But the file was sent back without a note, which makes it clear that the proposal did not get the required approval for now,” said a senior official.

Benefits like a salary hike, entitlement to leave and retirement benefits were mooted for the contractual engineers as they were being paid poorly and did not enjoy other facilities, sources said.

The benefits, the sources said, were proposed as the state government had offered several facilities for the contractual group C and D employees a few years ago.

“The government had raised the contractual group C and D employees' minimum salary to ₹10,000 with a three per cent hike every three years. Their services would not be terminated till the age of 60 years, and they would get a sum of ₹2 lakh on attaining 60 years of age. But these facilities are not extended to the contractual engineers,” said a source.

The engineers, sources said, were recruited in 2014 with a promise that their case would be put forward in the cabinet for the creation of permanent posts in the departments concerned on completion of two years of probation.

“But that day did not come even after they served for 11 years at a stretch.... No other benefit was given to them, though the government decided to extend some facilities to the contractual group C and D employees,” said an official.

The contractual engineers get ₹16,000 to ₹17,000 a month on average. It was not revised in the past 11 years. They are not entitled to any kind of leave.

“Contractual engineers in the panchayat department working for several central government projects usually get ₹50,000 to ₹60,000 a month. But the particular engineers we are referring to are paid poorly. The state government should consider revising their pay package immediately,” said a source, adding that the finance department had approved the proposal to revise their salaries, but it did not get through the uppermost layer of the administration.

The government’s refusal to extend some additional benefits to the engineers immediately could leave a severe impact on several important projects that the state is carrying out now, said bureaucrats.

“They were hoping that this time they would be given some additional benefits… As the proposal was turned down, their morale was dealt a blow. I am apprehensive about some important projects where they are playing an important role. If the projects get delayed, it would hurt the state exchequer as the project cost would go up,” said a bureaucrat.

He said projects like the construction of the Linac Building at SSKM hospital, the New Town campus of Calcutta University, the Kurseong campus of the Presidency University and B.C. Roy building at NRS hospital was being executed mainly by the contractual engineers. They also do the regular electrical and IT upkeep of the medical colleges.

“If the progress of the projects gets affected, the estimated project cost would go up…. It seems the engineers are not in a good frame of mind, and they cannot be blamed,” said another bureaucrat.