Cong paid the price for not acting on report: Ex-chief of TVCC

The victory of BJP in BBMP elections seems to suggest that the citizens either ignored or pardoned the party for a series of scams that took place in the last eight years in the civic body that led to the huge loss to the Palike exchequer.

The BJP did not have to convince its voters much about the scams that had hit its regime – three years during the administrator’s rule between 2007 and 2010, when the BJP-led State government was in office for two years during the said period. And for five years as ruling party in the BBMP council between 2010 and 2015.

Of the many scams that tainted the previous BJP regime in the Palike, at least 47 were probed by the BBMP’s Technical Vigilance Cell under Commissioner (TVCC). This includes the infamous fake bill scam, KRIDL scam, garbage scam, work code scam, bogus ‘A’ khata, fake building plan sanction, encroachment of civic amenity sites by corporators, Bagair Hukum land scam and advertisement scam involving about Rs 2,000 crore.

Former TVCC Chief Engineer N Devaraju, who opted for voluntary retirement after being targeted for his blunt reports nailing many officers, said, “More than BJP’s victory it is Congress’ defeat, which paid the price for not taking our reports on various irregularities seriously. It (Congress) used our (TVCC) reports only for political mileage at the fag end of the tenure of previous BBMP council and did not act a bit. People too understand that parties do not matter much because all of them are equally corrupt. People did punish some corrupt corporators, who did not work for the public.”

Former Mayor B S Sathyanarayana (BJP) said, “There were allegations against us, but they could not be proved. Even the Congress tried to taint us, but they failed. As the citizens of Bengaluru have given us one more opportunity, we will make sure that the Palike finances are streamlined.”

A former bureaucrat on condition of anonymity said that the people voted for the BJP as the ruling Congress in the State and the JD(S) could not project themselves as strong alternatives.

Putting it bluntly, the retired IAS officer said, “The only inference you can draw from the verdict is that the two other parties are more corrupt in public eye than the BJP. The Congress has not learnt any lesson from the rout it has been facing across the country, including the one in the Lok Sabha elections. It has lost interest to win polls. It exists, just because it is not dying despite ailing badly.”