Health Minister R Ashok, who is in charge of Bangalore City, has expressed serious displeasure over Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike Commissioner K Jairaj for not submitting an inquiry report on the alleged irregularities in desilting of storm water drains.
Speaking to reporters, Ashok said the commissioner has failed to give a report though he had written a letter in this regard about a month ago seeking details of irregularities and officials responsible. He has sought details of the desilting work, going on from past two years, following media reports that crores of rupees has been misappropriate in execution of the work.
Upset with commissioner’s non-response, Ashok has decided to take up the issue with the chief minister, who is holding the portfolio of BBMP and other civic agencies.
Meanwhile, the BBMP has recently transferred three engineers, who were on deputation from Karnataka Power Corporation Limited, as they were in charge of the desilting of major valleys - Challaghatta, Vrishabhavati, Koramangala and Hebbal and many storm water drains.
Rs 77 to Rs 135?
The Rs 496-crore project of desilting four valleys has been take up under the World Bank aid and tenders were awarded to private firms under 15 different packages. Sources said that the engineers in charge of the projects had allegedly connived with the contractors and allowed them to quote higher amount for many works, which are described as more profitable.
On the other hand, even though the firms which had bid for the tender had quoted Rs 77 per cubic metre, the amount was increased to Rs 135  per cubic metre in the agreement signed between the BBMP and the contractors, the sources pointed out.  In normal circumstances, the authorities try to negotiate with the bidders to reduce the amount but in the present case the amount has been doubled during the negotiations.
Engineers Ranganath, Shivashankar and Mruthyunjaya have exceeded their power in allowing these acts and the chief accountant has pointed out this irregularities in this report.
Though the authorities claim that 50 per cent of the work has been completed, in reality major work is still pending even after the expiry of deadline to complete the work, said the sources in the BBMP.
Another irregularity allegedly noticed by the people was the “false” claim of removal 14 lakh cubic metre of silt from these valleys.
If that was true the question that arise was where such a large quantity of the silt (about 2.43 truck loads) has been dumped as it required an area of about 15 to 20 acres. However, there has been no answer from the officials for these questions from the people.