BENGALURU:District Minister Ramalinga Reddy on Friday dismissed accusations that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was responsible for the poor quality of BBMP works, saying the civic body’s projects have been riddled with irregularities for the past decade.
He told reporters that “hundreds and thousands of crores were spent during the last 10 years to take up road repair and housing works, construction of culverts, removal of silt and renovation of buildings”, but there had been large-scale irregularities while awarding tenders.
He said during this period, the civic body has failed to harness revenue from advertisement hoardings erected across its jurisdiction, and has issued illegal khatas in various localities, resulting in huge revenue losses.
Reddy said he has written to Siddaramaiah to order a probe into the matter. “The chief minister can take a decision on the (probe) agency, whether it is the Lokayukta or the CID,” he said. He also called for a probe into the stashing of BBMP work files in the residence of Congress MLA Munirathna Naidu, which came to light during a Lokayukta raid recently.
He also dismissed BJP leaders’ claims that a majority of BBMP works have been pocketed by Congress workers, saying the BBMP Council, which is currently ruled by the BJP, had decided to entrust the Karnataka Rural Development Corporation Ltd with the responsibility of calling for tenders. “According to the wishes of the BJP leaders in BBMP, civic works worth over Rs 817 crore were given to KRDCL. It is unfair to blame the chief minister,” he said.
He also criticised the NDA government at the Centre for stopping JnNRUM funds and said it has put a spanner in the works as far as infrastructure development is concerned.