BENGALURU: Former Mayor NR Ramesh has once again pointed out anomalies in the management of lakes, construction and treatment of water from stormwater drains and sewage lines. He has blamed the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) engineers for swindling crores of rupees and polluting the water bodies.
This time, he quoted the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report, where it said that the BBMP chief engineers in 2016 quoted a bill of Rs 62.97 crore for making sure untreated sewage doesn’t enter lakes in Bommanahalli and RR Nagar, but in reality, nothing changed.
He said, “When the auditors sought files, the engineers reasoned that the files were missing and brushed the matter aside. Later in 2019, the issue came to light again, when the engineers showed a bill on the same case of Rs 94 lakh. This caught the attention of the auditors again and they questioned the BBMP that if the file was missing, how could the arrears be calculated and quoted. The CAG is said to have written to the BBMP Chief Commissioner around three months back, but still nothing has happened.”
Ramesh said that this was not the first time BBMP engineers, along with contractors, swindled crores of taxpayers’ money. When reporters questioned BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta regarding the issue, he said that the matter is under investigation and they are trying to ascertain how these happened.