BENGALURU: Magadi JDS MLA A Manjunath on Saturday alleged that around Rs 800 crore has been swindled by officials in the Bengaluru-Mysuru highway widening project and the money might have been passed on to an elected representative.
He demanded a CBI probe into the alleged scandal in building the stretch that flooded last week, sparking a row over the quality of work.
He alleged that Rs 800 crore has been distributed to somebody else against some others’ name. He asked Mysuru-Kodagu MP Pratap Simha, “Are you a brand ambassador for the company that is carrying out the highway works?”
He said, “Rs 80 crore has been spent per kilometre on this 119km highway. But it is being implemented unscientifically as there are no basic amenities, including drinking water, cafeteria, refuelling and trauma centre, to attend to accident victims. Though the road passes through several villages, there is no provision for bullock carts to use it.”
He said compensation has to be given to genuine farmers who have lost their land to the project. If not, they will sit on a dharna on the highway, he warned. The highway flooded as it is being built unscientifically.
The suggestions of the NHAI over the last four years have been ignored, he said. Almost all the 50 deviations along the stretch were flooded and farmers found it difficult to ride tractors and bullock carts into their farms, he said. A delegation of JDS MLAs, led by senior leaders HD Kumaraswamy and HD Revanna, will meet Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on September 7, he added.