BANGALORE: Bangalore has been voted as the best IT city to live in but the scandals unearthed recently in the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has painted a large black dot in the history of the civic body.There is no dearth of scandals in the BBMP. Among the scandals, the Rs 1,539 crore fake bill scandal is considered as the biggest in recent times. It is alleged that since 2008 the civic body doled out Rs 1,539 crore to various contractors who have muscle power as well as political clout for such works that were not taken up or poor quality works. It was alleged that a few contractors were paid twice for the same project.Alarmed by the nature of the scam, the then Commissioner Siddaiah had ordered Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force (BMTF) to conduct an inquiry. He had also requested the state government to entrust the investigation of the scandal to the Lokayukta. An Executive Engineer was arrested for allegedly colluding with contractors to swindle taxpayers’ money. The arrest led to large scale protest by BBMP engineers demanding the release of the Executive Engineer Idiyavendan.Fire AccidentThe fire accident was yet another example of BBMP’s negligence in implementing fire safety measures. It was suspected that many documents relating to the alleged scam were burnt in the fire mishap. The negligence of the BBMP had invited Chief Minister’s wrath who then ordered a CID probe into the mishap. As expected, the lobby of corporators and contractors succeeded in shunting out Siddaiah from the BBMP. Recently, the chief of Technical Vigilance Committee too expressed his wish for a transfer. It became difficult for him to continue in his post as he was instrumental in unearthing the scandal. JD(S) leader Padmanabha Reddy unearthed misappropriation to the tune of Rs 169 crore in maintenance of parks and saplings plantation. The alleged scam was believed to have taken place in the horticulture and forest divisions of the civic body during the administrator’s period between 2008 and 2010.According to Reddy, three officials were authorised to take up works that cost less than Rs 1 lakh without calling for tenders. However, they took up works worth more than that without calling for tenders.Drum beatingThe other important achievement of the BBMP was utilising the services of drum beaters to embarrass tax defaulters. The drive, initiated by the then Commissioner Siddiah, enabled the civic body to collect more than Rs 4 crore from property owners who failed to pay the tax for many years. Commissioner Shankaralinge Gowda released the list of property tax defaulters to the media.The BBMP also declared war on illegal optical fibre cables (OFC). It began disconnecting unauthorised OFC connections all over the city.
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