BENGALURU:BJP has turned up the heat on Water Resources Minister M B Patil, who is leading the charge for separate religion status for the Lingayat community. On Thursday, BJP’s chief ministerial candidate B S Yeddyurappa alleged a Rs 157 crore scam in Patil’s ministry. Accusing Patil of getting Rs 25 crore in kickbacks in the alleged scam, Yeddyurappa has demanded Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to sack the minister and recommend a CBI probe to get to the bottom of the scam.
Explaining the modus operandi, Yeddyurappa said tenders were awarded and work orders issued to M/s National Projects Construction Corporation Ltd. It was to execute a Rs 157.94 crore project to build a 2.9km-long branch canal in Chitradurga district under the Upper Bhadra Project based on a fake ‘work done’ certificate submitted by the company, he alleged.
According to the tender conditions, the firms should have experience in executing similar works. Only two companies had participated in the tender process — M/s National Projects Construction Corporation Ltd, which had submitted a work done certificate from Manipur, and M/s Amma Construction Company, which had submitted a work done certificate from Tripura. Interestingly, the certificates of both the companies have been signed by the same executive engineer, Yeddyurappa said.
The Tripura and Manipur governments clarified that they had not issued any such certificates to the companies, Yeddyurappa added. He alleged that a well organised racket is operating within the Water Resources department to issue fake ‘work done’ certificates to award contracts worth crores to select companies with huge kickbacks to minister Patil with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s patronage.
Tender cancelled, Yeddyurappa is a joker, fool: Patil
Denying the allegation, Patil said that Yeddyurappa had made a fool of himself by acting in a hurry and without verifying his facts. The Tender Scrutiny Committee in Visvesvaraya Jala Nigam, which invited the tenders, has cancelled the said tender on March 19 after finding that National Project Construction Company Ltd had submitted a fake work done certificate. “The committee has recommended cancellation of tender, confiscated the earnest money deposit of the company and also blacklisted the firm,” Patil said. “By trying to malign me in a hurry, Yeddyurappa has made himself an object of ridicule. His foolish act has made him a joker. Yeddyurappa’s such acts of foolishness will cost BJP dearly in the election,” he added.
BJP ready to tighten screws on Congress netas
BENGALURU: Pushed on the defensive over the Lingayat issue, BJP is showing all signs of turning aggressive to outsmart Congress in the run-up to poll battle. State BJP leadership is on a hunt again to expose scams in the Siddaramaiah government. The possibility of IT raids on senior ministers MB Patil, KJ George and RV Deshpande is also in the air. BJP state president BS Yeddyurappa, who hurled charges of Rs 157 crore scam against Water Resources Minister MB Patil on Thursday, said, “There are many more such scams involving MB Patil in the department. I will expose a mega scam ten times bigger than the one exposed today,” Yeddyurappa declared. The corridors of power in the capital are abuzz with speculations of IT raids on ministers M B Patil, K J George and R V Deshpande. However, leaders in BJP refute allegations of targeting any Congress leaders. “The IT department collects data on big money flow, expenditure, investments of people. Congress leaders need not fear if they have nothing to hide,” BJP sources said. But ministers like Patil and George are not convinced. “IT sleuths will soon raid my premises as BJP is trying to misuse IT department to crush its political rivals. I have been tipped off about the impending raid by insiders in the department,” Patil said on Thursday.