Attempt to ‘develop’ good roads nipped in the bud

BBMP vigilance cell recommends action against officials

August 20, 2014 12:02 am | Updated 12:53 am IST - Bangalore :

K G Road was one of the roads that officials wanted to develop. File Photo: Bhagya Prakash K.

K G Road was one of the roads that officials wanted to develop. File Photo: Bhagya Prakash K.

An attempt to take up unnecessary works causing a loss to the financially starved Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has been nipped in the bud. The civic body’s Technical Vigilance Cell under Commissioner (TVCC) found that asphalting and development had been proposed for roads that were in a good condition.

The TVCC, after the probe, found that the BBMP needed to take up improvement of only one road of the proposed nine in Gandhinagar ward. It also found that six roads were in good condition while two had been recently developed by the BBMP's Road Infrastructure Development Department.

The works were proposed to be taken up at a cost of Rs. 4.33 crore by the Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Ltd. (KRIDL). However, sensing something amiss, the Special Commissioner directed the TVCC to probe the proposed works.

This is not the first time that duplicate works are being proposed in Gandhinagar. Earlier, the TVCC had detected a multi-crore fake bill scam in Gandhinagar, Malleswaram and Rajarajeshwarinagar sub-divisions. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is now probing the scam.

After the probe, in its report, the TVCC noted that civic officials had illegally issued the Letter of Intent (LoI) to KRIDL despite the BBMP giving an undertaking to the High Court of Karnataka in 2006 that an LoI would not be given. It also found that these works did not have the requisite technical and administrative approvals apart from approval of the authority concerned.

Blaming the jurisdictional Assistant Engineer, Assistant Executive Engineer and Executive Engineer for including roads that did not require any development in the list, the TVCC recommended that stringent action against them.

Special Commissioner V. Yashwanth told The Hindu that the Commissioner had directed the BBMP’s Administration Department to initiate disciplinary action against the officials concerned.

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