JOIN US'Officers didn't let vigilance cell access Pulse Polio files'
Mayor Manjunatha Reddy said on Tuesday that the BBMP health officers had denied access to files pertaining to the Pulse Polio drive to the Technical Vigilance Cell under Commissioner (TVCC).
Revealing this in the BBMP Council, during a discussion on the administrative report of eight years, Reddy said that he had ordered the TVCC to conduct an investigation, but the officers were holding back the files.
He ordered an inquiry after the health officers sent a bill of Rs one crore to the finance department for the recent Pulse Polio drive. “The officers produced the Detailed Contingent (DC) bills, which was quite surprising to me. When I enquired about it, the officer ran away and did not show up since then.”
The mayor’s reaction came when his predecessor B S Satyanarayana raised the issue of misuse of funds in the Health department. Participating in the discussion, Jayamahal Corporator M K Gunashekar demanded a white paper on the department.
Sathyanarayana said that there was a huge potential for revenue from the Palike’s markets, but the officials were least bothered about it. He suspected a nexus between the officials and the shopkeepers in the markets.
He said, “Each shop at the Johnson Market brings in an annual rent of just Rs 25. The market is in a prime location from where the Palike should have got a huge revenue. Let these markets be developed on Public-Private Partnership (PPP) basis.”Speaking about the Education department, Sathyanarayana said the Palike schools were poorly managed.
“Unlike many private schools, our schools have better infrastructure and playgrounds, but the results are never encouraging. Most of the children studying in these schools come from economically and socially weaker sections who require proper education. Due to the callousness of officials, education in these schools is very poor,” he said.
He said teachers were more interested in politics than teaching in these schools.Sathyanarayana also pointed to the poor implementation of welfare schemes.
“There should be no dearth of funds to carry out works under the 22.75% scheme. But whenever a proposal pertaining to some welfare scheme, especially on funding individual houses for SC/STs, is forwarded, the officials give an excuse of lack of funds,” the former mayor said. He asked the Palike administration to focus on the welfare schemes to empower the weaker sections.