BANGALORE: Pointing out that there was no garbage scam to the tune of `121 crore in Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), Deputy Mayor S Harish on Thursday demanded the resignation of JD(S) leader Padmanabha Reddy for making false allegations.
Recently, Reddy had accused the BBMP of `121 crore scam. He had offered to tender resignation if the scam was proved otherwise. Addressing a press conference, Harish denied that without calling for tender BBMP had spent `121 crore on contractors for clearance of garbage. He said due to technical reasons, BBMP had not called for new garbage tenders so far.
“In the council meeting, councillors from JD(S), Congress, BJP as well as independent councillors had demanded to give tenders to contractors without floating tenders. We had to take this as per their demand,” the deputy mayor said.
Further, he said that if Reddy’s allegations were true, then even he was involved in the scam as every month `3.69 lakh had been drawn to clear garbage in his ward Kacharakanahalli.
Harish said that the tenders were floated to clear garbage across all the 198 wards at a whopping cost of `410 crore. That apart, according to PWD code chief engineers have a provision to pay an additional 15 per cent to contractors. “Since there is no scam involved, it is suggestible Reddy should resign,” Harish said.