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Scam in special LOC quota too

Last Updated 25 March 2015, 19:19 IST

Many contractors may stage protests, sit in dharna and beg the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) administration to clear their bills, but there are some fortunate contractors, who use their political clouts and get crores of rupees released in their favour under the Special LOC quota.

Wednesday saw a high drama in the BBMP Council when the chief accounts officer of the BBMP Narayanaswamy started reading out the names of people recommended for release of payments under the Special Letter of Credit to the contractors. He read out the names to rescue the Mayor N Shanthakumari, who came under attack from the Opposition members for using her influence to release Rs 82 crore in favour of contractors bypassing seniority in the payment of dues.

It emerged from the list that many phone calls were made from the office of the Chief Minister to the BBMP, which made the CAO release money. One of the officers who called the Palike officials was Venkatesh. There were also calls from ‘personal assistants’ of Transport and District-In-Charge Minister Ramalinga Reddy, MLAs Byrathi Basavaraju and Zameer Ahmed, besides corporators approaching the CAO and the BBMP Commissioner directly.

It also emerged that Rs 12 crore was paid to ‘unknown’ contractors on recommendation by the BBMP Commissioner M Lakshminararayna for the works undertaken by the project division of the BBMP at Dasarahalli and Mahadevapura zone. In one instance, the bill was raised in December and payment was made in January. When the corporators sought to know who the contractor was the CAO hid the information, despite repeated insistence.
The issue of Special Letter of Credit (Special LOC) had rocked the BBMP Council from Wednesday morning.

As soon as the session began, the Leader of the Opposition Congress in the BBMP Council B N Manjunath Reddy raised the issue demanding to fulfill the promise made on Tuesday about providing payment details.

He asked the mayor about the whereabouts of the Chief Finance Officer (CAO) of the BBMP, Narayanaswamy.

When he did not get a satisfactory reply, he stormed the well of the House along with the corporators of his party and raised slogans against the Palike administration and the ruling BJP. The pandemonium led to the adjournment of house for 10 minutes.

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(Published 25 March 2015, 19:19 IST)

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