Bengaluru
The state government suspended eight engineers of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Ltd (KRIDL), accused of generating fake bills to the tune of ₹118 crore for civil works in RR Nagar assembly constituency in Bengaluru, officials said on Friday.
The Urban Development Department (UDD) issued the suspension order on Wednesday after a preliminary probe conducted by Lokayukta last year found discrepancies in civil works.
The Lokayukta had initiated a probe after Bengaluru Rural Lok Sabha MP DK Suresh, whose constituency includes part of RR Nagar, filed a complaint in September 2020 alleging that the BBMP disbursed ₹250 crore to contractors without any work being done in several projects. He had further raised concerns about the swift clearance of payments by the BBMP, within two months of awarding the work.
Lokayukta Justice P Vishwanath Shetty directed five engineers of the Lokayukta technical division to conduct a probe and found discrepancies in 114 works. The report said the majority of the projects had no work done, yet cleared bills to the tune of 70% to 90% of total works. It added that around ₹118 crore of public money was misused by officials.
Although the Lokayukta had launched a probe and submitted its report in January last year, action was taken after the Congress government came to power. The UDD issued an order of suspension of eight engineers pending inquiry, on Wednesday.
“In the preliminary report, the Lokayukta had found ₹118 crore loss to the exchequer in just 114 works. As there could be the possibility of massive loss in other works executed by KRIDL under BBMP limits, all works executed by KRIDL in the last two-and-a-half years should be probed,” the UDD order said.
The order further said to conduct a fair probe into both ongoing and executed works in the past two years. Regional Commissioner of Bengaluru Revenue Division, Amlan Aditya Biswas has been appointed as the investigation officer to probe the scam.
The suspended engineers are: Doddaiah, Chief Engineer, Technical Vigilance Cell under Commissioner (TVCC); Sathish Kumar K, Assistant Executive Engineer (AEE), TVCC; Basavaraj N, in-charge EE of RR Nagar; Siddaramaiah M, AE of RR Nagar; NG Umesh, AEE of Laggere; Srinivas, EE of KRIDL; Venkatalakshmi, AEE of TVCC; and Shreetej, AEE of TVCC.
