'State government favoured Congmen in BBMP works'

The leader of the ruling BJP in the BBMP Council, N R Ramesh, on Thursday accused the State government of awarding BBMP-related works worth Rs 560 crore to nine Congress workers through the Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Limited (KRIDL).

Addressing reporters, Ramesh said that during 2013-14 and 2014-15, the State government had granted Rs 560 crore for the improvement of roads and other development works. However, instead of giving that money to the BBMP, the government took a decision to straightaway entrust the work to KRIDL without floating tenders under the urgent work category. The government bypassed the transparency rules, to enable the KRIDL to charge at least 11 per cent extra from the estimate of the work.

Ramesh alleged that the KRIDL did not execute the work on its own and sub-contracted it to nine Congress workers, who have not even completed 40 per cent of the work although the work was supposed to be carried out urgently for which extra 11 per cent were paid.

Taking a dig at Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for his recent statement that the BBMP performs shoddy work, Ramesh quipped: “Yes, the works are performed shoddily in the BBMP because of mala fide intentions to benefit people.”He wondered whether the chief minister gave the statement to divert public attention from denotification scam.