BENGALURU: The gym at the Legislators’ Home (LH), which had come under fire from Speaker Kagodu Thimmappa, questioning its equipment deal, has downed its shutters— at least for a couple of months.
Body Dench India Ltd, which had supplied the equipment in January this year, allegedly at an inflated cost, was forced to take the equipment back on Monday. Gym instructor N Ramesh, who had allegedly turned a blind eye on the deal with the company, has been transferred to the Record Room in the Vidhana Soudha, sources said.
Body Dench Ltd was forced to unplug its hardware, following an internal inquiry ordered by the Assembly Secretariat, which unearthed the alleged questionable deal.
The Karnataka Assembly Secretariat had placed an order to equip the Legislators’ Health Club with modern fitness enhancing equipment, costing over `82 lakh, from a private company in January this year, after getting an exemption from the Karnataka Transparency Act to procure the equipment without inviting tenders.
According to sources, the Finance Department had permitted procurement of the gym equipment from a private firm, Techno Gem. However, it was revealed later that the equipment had been delivered by a different company at an inflated cost.
The supplier, apart from serving a bill of `82,14,236 towards the supply and installing of the equipment, had also sent another bill of `3,11,440 towards annual maintenance of the Health Club, in advance. According to official sources, even though the Health Club was started for the benefit of the over 300 legislators, hardly about three to four of them used to visit the club.
Reacting over the removal of equipment, Speaker Kagodu Thimmappa, said, “An inquiry will be ordered into the shady deal to fix the accountability on those who were responsible for it.”
Replying to questions, he said, “No financial loss was reported as the supplier had removed the equipment even before receiving any payment.”