JOIN USHow BBMP tried & failed to build a theatre on a school playground
Cobblestones, kerbstones and concrete bricks dumped all over the Yelachenahalli Model Government School playground in Sarakki, south Bengaluru, stand testimony to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) engineers’ elaborate plans to siphon off Rs 1.11 crore of taxpayers’ money.
The engineers had planned a ‘ranga mandira’ (theatre), walkway and side drains at the place without even informing the Department of Public Instruction which owns the playground. The school principal and the department woke up only after local residents raised an alarm and sought details of the work order and the relevant permission.
Following pressure from local residents, school principal Ravi Kumar “informed” the jurisdictional Kumaraswamy Layout police about “trespassing by unknown people”. But instead of taking action, the police gave a quiet burial to the BBMP engineers’ attempt to usurp the playground and siphon off public money.
For the time being, the BBMP has dropped the plan but hasn’t bothered to remove the construction material that hinders schoolchildren’s sports activities.
The proposal to build the ‘ranga mandira’ was mooted by the Congress’ Yelachenahalli corporator O Manjunath in mid-2014 under the mayor’s special grant. The BBMP’s Public Works Committee approved the project, documents available with Deccan Herald show.
The initial cost was Rs 99 lakh, which later increased to Rs 1.11 crore. The joint commissioner and chief engineer of the BBMP’s Bommanahalli zone gave administrative approvals to the project in September 2014. An advertisement inviting tenders was subsequently published in a Kannada daily.
Police came into the picture after the school principal “informed” them about what the engineers were up to. They summoned them and sought details of the project. By now, the engineers told the police the project had been dropped and work stopped. Police believed them and dropped pursuing the matter.
Jana Sangram Parishath, a nonprofit, however, objected to the manner in which the police winded up the case. Manjunatha S, a member of the JSP, said the complaint was “sufficient enough” to book the engineers for trying to “squander” public money by approving a project on a property which did not belong to the BBMP. “For the heck of it, police sought the opinion of their legal cell. The opinion was nothing but what police wanted,” said Manjunatha.
Not an isolated case
The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike is said to have developed a Rs 1.5-crore park in Jaraganahalli on a property which did not belong to it. It lost the case after eights years of legal battle. The land will be reverted to the claimant, V
Krishnamurthy.