BENGALURU: Eleven Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike have been suspended for allegedly generating fake bills worth Rs 118 crore for civil works in RR Nagar assembly constituency in Bengaluru Rural.
The Karnataka Lokayukta had launched a probe following a complaint by Bengaluru Rural MP D K Suresh, and submitted its report in January last year, finding sufficient grounds of malpractice. However, action was only initiated a few weeks after the Congress government came to power.
According to a government order, the suspended officials are: Dodaiah, Chief Engineer Technical Vigilance Committee under Commissioner (TVCC); Sateesh, Assistant Executive Engineer (AEE); Vijay Kumar, Chief Engineer (RR Nagar); Shilpa, Assistant Engineer (Technical); Mohan, Chief Engineer, RR Nagar (Projects); Bharathi, AEE(Projects), Basavaraj, Executive Engineer (Projects), Siddaramaiah, Assistant Engineer (129 ward, Jnanabharati ward); Umesh, AEE (73 Laggere Ward); Anitha, Superintendent Engineer (RR Nagar) and Gooli Gowda (Deputy Manager, Projects).
The MP had also alleged that there was destruction of evidence and manipulation of documents, and that the officials acted at the behest of the area MLA Munirathna Naidu.
This apart, RTI activists A Rangaswamy and HC Shivakumar had also complained that the work orders were issued in 2019 and funds were released in 2020. The activist contended that the scam is worth Rs 250 crore. It is said that bills of 114 works were cleared in just two months in 2020, but only two works were executed.