JOIN USThe show-cause notice issued to the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) councillors created an uproar at the Palike Council on Thursday.
Some elected representatives were clearly unhappy with the State government for serving the notice on them for alleged financial irregularities in the BBMP. Corporator from Kacharakanahalli ward, Padmanabha Reddy, said: “It is an illegal notice. The government should have issued the notice only to the Commissioner and he in turn would have brought it to our notice. I request the State government to take back the notice. We were not appointed as councillors during 2008-10 when the irregularities took place as was pointed out in the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report."
While the notice has been issued to Mayor, Commissioner, Deputy Mayor and corporators, the State government has not served the notice on MLAs, MLCs and MPs, which is unfair, said Reddy.
Former Mayor and Hanumanthnagar Councillor K Chandrashekar, however, clarified that there was no notice served on the corporators as it was mainly addressed to the Commissioner and the Mayor.
Commissioner M Lakshminarayana said a municipal body primarily comprises of corporators, standing committees and the commissioner.
“MLAs, MPs and MLCs are not responsible for affairs in the corporation. If the Palike is dissolved, it will affect us, not them,” the commissioner added.
Meanwhile, the corporators demanded a Lokayukta probe against the Chief Accounts Officer (CAO) Kanakaraju and Accounts Superintendent Narayanaswamy for accepting commissions from the contractors and not issuing them bills. “The CAO and officers in the Accounts Department are the black spots in the Palike and are bringing the civic agency a bad name. They should be suspended immediately,” said Guruppanapalya Corporator, Mohammad Rizwan Navab.
Mayor N Shantha Kumari instructed Kanakaraju to give all the details related to issual of general and special letter of credit (LoC) to contractors in each of the wards till date.