Palike released Rs 118 cr to garbage contractors, HC told

The BBMP has released Rs 118 crore as payment to garbage contractors and poura­ka­rmikas (sanitation workers), its commissioner M Lakshminarayana told the High Court on Tuesday.

The submission is a reversal of the commissioner’s statement at a previous hearing that the BBMP didn’t have the money to pay the bills of Rs 150 crore, pending for the past five months. A division bench of Justices N Kumar and B V Nagarathna had directed the BBMP to make the payments at the earliest. At the latest hearing, the commissioner also submitted a status report on the garbage clearance in the City. Police protection for SPP

The HC on Tuesday ordered the Home department to provide police protection to Sadashiva Murthy, special public prosecutor in the murder case of RTI activist Lingaraju.

A division bench headed by Justice N Kumar gave the order on an interlocutory application by amicus curiae Hasmath Pasha who argued that Murthy’s life was under threat and he was being “continuously harassed”.

The court had treated press reports on the murder of RTI activist Lingaraju in Vittal Nagar in Chamarajpet on Nov 20, 2012, as a suo motu PIL.
DH News Service