The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on Tuesday submitted to the Lokayukta that it would not transfer Assistant Commissioner (Advertisement) K Mathai.
The BBMP council had moved a resolution recently to transfer Mathai, a KAS officer who has been going tough on the advertisement hoarding mafia in the City.
Sources said the complaint filed by Mathai with the Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force (BMTF), that a circular was forged to favour the advertisement hoarding mafia, triggered the move to shunt him out of the BBMP.
Incidentally, Mathai was transferred six times between July and September 2014, before he was posted to the BBMP.
A former IAF officer, Mathai was targeted by the sand mining mafia during his stint as Tahashildar in Hassan.
Miscreants torched his residence to deter him from taking stringent action.
Subsequently, he was transferred as commissioner, Mandya Urban Development Authority (MUDA), in October 2013.
Mathai submitted four reports regarding large-scale illegalities amounting to Rs 300 crore in allotment of sites by the MUDA.
Based on a detailed 678-page fourth report, the State government handed over the case to the CBI in 2014.
Mathai’s good work was appreciated in the form of back-to-back transfers.
He was shifted to Hoovina Hadagali in the Ballari district, even as the CBI probe had just begun.
Mathai could not take charge in Hoovina Hadagali as the post was not vacant.
When this was brought to the notice of the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (DPAR), he was then transferred to Bidar.
Then, the schedule for the Lok Sabha polls was announced, and Mathai could not take charge there either.
After the polls, he was transferred to Mysuru as special land acquisition officer, and within one week this order was changed and Mathai was posted as project director, DUDC, Madikeri.
The DPAR had issued show-cause notice to Mathai for not assuming charge in all these postings and has not paid him salary for four months.
DPAR sources said since Mathai did not take charge, it has been considered as unauthorised absence.
Mathai has filed a complaint with the Lokayukta on the withholding of salary and harassment by the DPAR.
Saidatta, the complainant in the illegal advertisement case before the Lokayukta, had filed a complaint before the Upalokayukta on the move to transfer Mathai from the BBMP.
Upalokayukta Justice Subhash B Adi had sent a notice to the BBMP to clarify the grounds to transfer Mathai.
“A legal cell officer from the BBMP conveyed the message of the BBMP commissioner that Mathai would not be transferred. It is not proper to disturb an officer in-charge of advertisement section when investigation by the Lokayukta police into the illegal
hoardings is underway,” said Justice Adi.
