Awarding the contract for the compound wall that claimed Sanjana Singh's life itself is illegal as the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike Commissioner had no power to revise the cost beyond 5 per cent.
Sanjana died on June 1 when heavy rain caused part of the veterinary college compound wall on Bellary Road to fall on her. Subsequently, Yeshwanthpur councillor Munirathna and his associate Humesh Kumar, who had bid for the wall construction a year ago, were indicted by a BBMP panel for shoddy work.
105 per cent revision
Addressing a press conference on Friday, Padmanabha Reddy, Janata Dal (Secular) Floor Leader in the BBMP Council, said the work, initially estimated to cost Rs. 12.5 crore, was revised to Rs. 17 crore and again to Rs. 29 crore.
The revised estimate is more than 105 per cent, and only the State Cabinet had the power to approve it.
The report by BBMP Engineer-in-Chief A.K. Gopalaswamy about the quality of the work cannot be trusted as the inquiry was politically motivated, he alleged.
Questioning Mr. Gopalaswamy' bona fides, Mr. Reddy said during his tenure as assistant engineer in Ejipura, the EWS Quarters had collapsed, resulting in some deaths.
The only option was either to wait for the Lokayukta report or institute an independent inquiry by an expert committee, he said.
Corruption charges
Alleging serious irregularities in the functioning of the palike, Mr. Reddy accused a senior official of protecting corrupt colleagues.
He said Anjanappa, a draftsman in Basavanagudi, had unauthorisedly refunded the earnest money deposit of Rs. 49,53,525 to a contractor immediately after the contract was awarded.
As per the Karnataka Municipal Councils Act, the EMD should be retained by the palike till a year after the completion of the project. Had the palike retained the amount, it would have earned Rs. 3,96,282 as interest at the rate of eight per cent a year for two years, he noted.
After the illegality came to light, the palike suspended Mr. Anjanappa in January 2009.
However, one month into his suspension, Mr. Anjanappa paid this interest money to the palike and got his suspension revoked without any departmental inquiry.
Mr. Reddy alleged that BBMP Additional Commissioner A.M. Kunjappa was directly responsible for this episode.
Property tax scam
Citing another example of maladministration, Mr. Reddy said K.B. Vijaya Kumar, who was on daily wages, was assigned to collect property tax in Yelahanka.
He collected Rs. 40,09,244 from the public and did not deposit it with the palike. When a police complaint was filed, he deposited only Rs. 9,36,285 and is now assigned tax collection duty at Thanisandra ward, he noted.
Action sought
Mr. Reddy urged the Mayor to initiate immediate corrective action to plug loopholes, to conduct a detailed inquiry into Mr. Kunjappa's functioning and to repatriate all officials who are on deputation to the palike.
