BBMP Assistant Commissioner Mathai transferred for 24th time in 9 yrs

The state government shunted out BBMP Assistant Commissioner (advertisement) K Mathai who had exposed large-scale irregularities in the department.

With this, Mathai has been transferred for the 24th time in the last 9 years. Mathai had exposed a racket in the advertisement section which in the last eight years led to a loss of Rs 2,000 crore to the Palike exchequer.

The officer has been charged with bringing a bad name to the institution (Palike) and casting aspersion on his superiors, which are against the Karnataka Civil Services Rules.

He has been attached with the Department of Personnel and Administration Reforms till further orders. In the transfer order, the under secretary in the urban development department, N Narasimhamurthy, said Mathai prepared several reports highlighting irregularities and circulated it in the media, though none had asked him to do so.

“Repeated attempts by the mayor, BBMP commissioner and senior Palike officials asking him (Mathai) to mend his ways went in vain. Such behaviour has embarrassed the institution,” the order stated.

Mathai was also served with a show-cause notice but he continued to provide the media with reports which portrayed senior officers in poor light, the order further stated. The BBMP commissioner, too, had requested the state government to repatriate him to his parent department.

In the eight reports on large-scale irregularities in the advertisement division, Mathai has accused former chief secretary Kaushik Mukherjee, former BBMP commissioner M Lakshminarayana, and other senior IAS officers N V Prasad and Rashmi Mahesh, of taking certain decisions that “helped” the mafia to have a free rein. Mathai stated that Mukherjee had “openly threatened” him in the presence of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah who appreciated his good work.