Bengaluru: A bit of public works contractors in Bengaluru has levelled allegations of corruption towards the two-month-old Congress authorities in Karnataka led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
On Tuesday, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Contractors Affiliation, a physique comprising over 750 members, met Karnataka Governor Thawar Chand Gehlot in Bengaluru and submitted a letter narrating their woes over the BBMP not clearing pending payments of executed works for greater than two years.
The letter talked in regards to the “high-handed and arbitrary actions of the BBMP in withholding the funds” for “extraneous issues”.
“The affiliation has obtained representations from quite a few contractors complaining of the unlawful and arbitrary stand of the BBMP in refusing to launch the funds, and we have now additionally been knowledgeable by a few of the contractors {that a} fee of 10-15 p.c is being demanded on behalf of the Hon’ble Minister for Bengaluru Growth for the discharge of funds towards payments which might be licensed and accepted for funds,” said the letter which ThePrint has accessed.
Congress state chief and Deputy Chief Minister D.Ok. Shivakumar holds the portfolio of Bengaluru Metropolis Growth.
Chatting with reporters Tuesday, Shivakumar dismissed the allegations as a political conspiracy. “There isn’t any query of me responding to any contractors, I don’t know something about any payments. I haven’t spoken to any contractors. I’m additionally clever. I do know contractors and politics, (and) I do know who’s behind whom. Allow them to do no matter they need,” he mentioned.
Of their letter, the contractors additional alleged that the political class withholding funds for works already carried out had left a lot of their fraternity fragile, “inflicting contractors to think about giving up their life”.
“The BBMP is trying to arm-twist the contractors for extraneous issues budging to political strain and within the course of, the contractors are struggling,” it said.
“Being pushed to a state of desperation, having no different recourse accessible to us, we have now approached your excellency with a hope that your excellency would intervene on this matter on the earliest and stop the lack of lifetime of the contractors.”
The letter warned that if the payments weren’t cleared on the earliest, the contractors could have no possibility however to resort to “lay down our lives”.
Additionally Learn: How Karnataka Congress plans to make use of Mekedatu to ‘expose BJP’s double engine progress’ promise
Buying and selling expenses
The allegations carry again concentrate on corruption in Karnataka, a difficulty that the Congress used towards the earlier Basavaraj Bommai-led Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP) authorities within the run as much as the Might meeting election.
Whereas the Congress stormed to energy with campaigns like ‘PayCM’ and ‘40 per cent Sarkara, BJP means Bhrashtachara’, the contractors’ expenses have now given the BJP ammunition to assault the ruling celebration.
C.T. Ravi, former nationwide common secretary of the BJP, Tuesday instructed the media that the Karnataka authorities was resorting to issuing threats reasonably than resolving the calls for of contractors.
“Earlier, when there have been allegations of 40 p.c fee, the BJP authorities appointed a judicial fee to scrutinise each single tender, particularly the massive ones… now there are allegations towards them (Congress) however they’re resorting to threats,” he alleged.
In November 2021, a letter by the Karnataka State Contractors Affiliation to PM Narendra Modi, dated July, had surfaced which alleged that elected representatives and authorities officers had been harassing contractors for bribes. The BJP was then in energy within the state. The Congress had turned this into its largest marketing campaign towards the celebration.
Then in April 2022, the suicide of Santosh Patil, a personal contractor, in Udupi made information. Patil had accused then Minister of State for Rural Growth and Panchayat Raj Ok.S. Eshwarappa of demanding a bribe (“fee”) to launch funds for works accomplished in Belagavi final February.
Eshwarappa had resigned following the cost. Nonetheless, an investigation carried out by the police gave him a clear chit.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
Additionally Learn: Schooling, justice, ballot tickets — what are Karnataka’s mutts & how they grew to become energy centres
