The administrative ‘failure’ of the Palike, which has led to poor revenue collection, came under attack from the ruling BJP's Leader in the BBMP Council, N Nagaraju, on Tuesday.
Red-faced BJP members remained mute spectators as Nagaraju questioned Mayor D Venkatesh Murthy whether he could make any remarkable achievement at the fag end of his tenure that Bangloreans would remember for long.
“We haven't given the City any important infrastructure projects in the last ten months. Nothing remarkable we could do in our tenure which people can remember. For, officers did not cooperate with us,” rued Nagaraju.
He pointed to the alleged mafia operating in the BBMP. “The nexus between officers and tax defaulters has led to BBMP’s poor financial condition. We haven't held revenue officers accountable for not collecting taxes properly,” he said.
He alleged that officers were corrupt and inept and lacked concern for the Palike. “We have a capacity to generate a revenue of Rs 3,000 crore through property taxes, but we could collect only Rs 800 crore,” said Nagaraju.
Stringent action
He demanded that the Mayor pass a resolution to initiate stringent action against tax defaulters. “Give the tax defaulters 15 days time and start taking action against them in the remaining two months of our tenure.”
The ruling party leader's charges won applause from the Opposition camp, who hailed him for being ‘candid’ in portraying the administrative failure of the Mayor.
These charges did not go well with the BJP members. Chamarajpet corporator B V Ganesh countered the allegations and had a verbal spat with Nagaraju.
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