Deccan Herald 04.06.2013
‘No plans to disband BBMP vigilance cell’
The Technical Vigilance Cell under Commissioner
(TVCC), which earlier exposed a series of financial irregularities in
the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), will not be disbanded,
Palike Commissioner M Lakshminarayana has promised.
Two
key posts in the TVCC — one of chief engineer and another of
superintending engineer — are lying vacant. Strong rumours did the
rounds at the BBMP that the TVCC will either be disbanded or made so
weak as to exist only on paper. The hearsay was lent further credence
when the Superintending Engineer, S Prabhakar, was shifted out of TVCC
and posted to the BBMP’s Quality Control Division.
The Palike’s
vigilance cell had suffered a blow on May 31 when its Chief Engineer, N
Devaraj, took voluntary retirement, unable to face the ire of
corporators who had “abused and humiliated” him for “exposing” financial
irregularities in the civic body.
Devaraj and Prabhakar were always the soft targets as they had exposed many a scam.
Their
investigative reports resulted in holding back of payment of hundreds
of crores of rupees. In a recent case, bogus works worth Rs 532 crore
were cancelled and payments were frozen.
Lakshminarayana,
however, sought to allay the fears about the TVCC and said that the
Palike did not have any plan to disband it. He said that after becoming
the BBMP Commissioner, he had not transferred any official. He also did
not know why Prabhakar was transferred to the quality control division,
he claimed.
An extraordinary day at BBMP
May
31, 2013 will go down as a highly eventful day at the Bruhat Bangalore
Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). For, several of its officers either retired,
took voluntary retirement or went on long leave on the day.
While
Commissioner Siddaiah, Engineer-in-Chief B T Ramesh, Chief Health
Officer Dr Devaki Umesh and Additional Commissioner K Chandrashekhar
retired, the TVCC Chief Engineer N Devaraj, Bommanahalli Zonal Chief
Engineer A M Naik and Superintending Engineer (Town Planning) M Ramesh
took voluntary retirement.
The same day, Special Commissioner K R
Niranjan went on long leave and rumours are rife that he has chosen not
to come back to the BBMP which he served for three years.
