JOIN USIt’s been almost two years since the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s (BBMP) Rs 550-crore fake bill scam came to light.
Still, there is no remarkable development in the case investigated by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), except a recent raid at the Bommanahalli zonal office.
Out of the 198 wards, the ACB has probed 110 wards so far.
Out of the 110 wards investigated, it appears Bommanahalli zone has the maximum irregularities. ACB conducted the raid there in February.
In the recent review meeting, Jagdish Hiremani, member of the National Commission for Safai Karmacharis (NCSK), expressed unhappiness over the pace of the probe.
“Initially, I had demanded a CBI investigation. But the local government gave it to the ACB. Here, the poor pourakarmikas were shortchanged. Apart from faking the numbers, the contractors have not paid full salaries to them. They have asked a month’s time to probe all the wards. I am not happy with the probe,” Jagadish Hiremani told DH.
“This is one of the biggest scams. We need some more time to wrap up the investigation. We have served notices to all zonal offices, seeking replies and related documents. Except for the Bommanahalli zonal office, all the other offices have responded to it.
Prima facie, six to seven contractors have been found guilty. We will be covering the remaining wards this month,” a senior ACB official told DH.
In 2017, the one and a half year-long investigation led by BBMP joint commissioner for Solid Waste Management, Sarfaraz Khan, found out only 15,000 pourakarmikas were on the field, against the 45,000 pourakarmikas recorded in the BBMP database.
The biometric attendance system and GPS installed in auto tippers and compactors helped identify that the PF and ESI funds were not being deposited in pourakarmika accounts.
Sarfaraz Khan also highlighted the garbage mafia and submitted a report to the BBMP Commissioner Manjunath Prasad, who in turn filed a complaint at the ACB in August 2017.