JOIN USMuralidhar and Munirathnam vividly remember the last time roads at Kallahalli in Ulsoor asphalted was in 2006 and since then no road-laying work happened there.
The president and general secretary of BDA II Phase Residents’ Welfare Association, Kallahalli, were shocked when they learnt that the road-laying work worth Rs 20 lakh (Rs 19.99 lakh to be precise) was sanctioned for their area in September 2011.
The work order was issued in February 2012 and payment was also made later. However, a tarred road is still elusive.
The irregularity came to the fore due to a vigilant citizen of the area, P Kalidas Reddy, who remembered reading a BBMP advertisement in 2011 inviting tenders for asphalting work.
RTI filed
Even after one-and-a-half years of floating tenders when the work did not take place, Reddy filed an RTI application with BBMP seeking information about the work.
For nearly a year no information was provided until he approached Karnataka Information Commission.
Just when the case came up for hearing, BBMP officials finally parted with the information.
Although details provided are not complete, whatever Reddy got from Palike officials was an eye-opener for him.
The documents showed that BBMP had floated tender on October 29, 2011, worth Rs 2.2 crore for asphalting work in 10 areas of Sarvajna Nagar ward and one area of Benniganahalli of CV Raman Nagar Assembly constituency.
10 other places
It is not known whether the work happened at the ten other places, but at Kallahalli, no asphalting took place.
Documents show that the work order was issued to a contractor G Vasu on February 17, 2012, with an instruction that the work should be completed in 60 days, but even after two years and three months, the work could not commence.
Reddy said the division-level BBMP officials have indicated that the payment has already been made.
“This is nothing but an apparent case of fraud. If the work was sanctioned and the work order was issued, BBMP engineers should have ensured that it was completed,” Reddy said