Govt show-cause notice to Palike over indiscipline

The State government on Wednesday hinted at exercising its power of dissolving the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike and (BBMP) taking over its administration under Section 99 of the Karnataka Municipal Corporation Act- 1976, if the Mayor and all the corporators fail to provide explanation with documents by March 30 about the financial and administrative indiscipline in the civic agency.

The Urban Development Department on Wednesday issued a show-cause notice in this regard to the mayor, deputy mayor, all the corporators and BBMP Commissioner asked them to appear before the Additional Chief Secretary on or before March 30 to submit their explanation with regard to the financial and administrative indiscipline.

The show-cause notice cites the investigation report by senior IAS officer Rajendra Kumar Kataria, which pointed to absolute absence of financial and administrative discipline in the BBMP.

The notice also referred to the Comptroller and Auditor General's report, Upa Lokayukta report, newspaper reports, CID report, Karnataka High Court orders and the reports published by the Technical Vigilance Cell under Commissioner (TVCC) to initiate stringent action.

In his notice, the government maintained: “There is no financial discipline in the BBMP, consequently there is a series of financial drawbacks and mismanagement. The BBMP has utterly failed to streamline the blatant irregularities and has reached the stage that corrective measures are needed to be exercised.”

The officer added in the notice that it has become necessary on the part of the government to take cognisance of all the issues and circumstances, which have compelled the intervention of the government and that in the opinion of the government, the BBMP is found to be incompetent to perform its duties.

“BBMP also has exceeded its limits besides abuse of powers and failed to carry out the directions given to it from time to time to which detailed references have been made in the course of this notice,” says the notice.