CID to investigate BBMP advertisement scam

The State government has assigned the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to investigate the advertisement scam in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike.

The action comes after BBMP Assistant Commissioner (Advertisement) K Mathai submitted five reports pointing to large-scale corruption in the advertisement department which has led to a loss of at least Rs 2,000 crore in the last eight years.

The government order states, “The Palike did not collect penalty against advertising agencies which have put up illegal hoardings and not collected revenue based on the size of the advertisements. This has led to a loss of at least Rs 2,000 crore. In this regard, the CID has been instructed to investigate the matter. The BBMP officials are duty-bound to co-operate with the CID in their investigation and supply whatever documents the CID demands. The CID should investigate the matter at the earliest and submit an appropriate report to the State government.”

‘CID’s poor track record’

The government’s move to order a CID probe is seen as an attempt to curb corruption in the advertisement section of the BBMP. The CID could not do enough in the fake bill scam, which was assigned to it five years ago following a detailed report by the BBMP’s Technical Vigilance Cell under Commissioner.

Sai Datta, who has filed a petition in the High Court, said that it seems the government had in a way accepted Mathai’s reports on the scam.

“The CID has grossly failed in investigating the fake bill scam. Also, it was assigned to probe the irregularities in the BBMP based on the Rajendra Kataria report, but there is no news of any progress made. My demand remains that only a CBI probe can bring out the advertisement scam worth Rs 2,000 crore,” said Datta.