4 months ago
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Days after the High Court of Karnataka stayed investigation into civic works executed between 2019-20 and 2022-23 by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), the State government has wound up four Special Investigation Teams (SITs) led by IAS officers.
However, the investigation will now be taken over by the H.N. Nagamohan Das Commission, an order by the government said.
On August 5, the SITs were formed to investigate projects approved for solid waste management (led by Ujjwal Kumar Ghosh), road development (Amlan Aditya Biswas), storm-water drain (P.C. Jaffer), and lake development (Vishal R.).
The government had set a deadline of one month to submit the reports, when these SITs were formed. Even after four months there was no concrete outcome from the investigation. The SITs were also tasked to probe the ‘40% commission’ allegations levelled by contractors.
On the other hand, the government on August 25 constituted the H.N. Nagamohan Das Commission to probe into works executed during the previous BJP government in the Public Works, the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, the Water Resources, and the Minor Irrigation Departments.
Later on October 10, the government expanded the scope of the investigation to include the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) works. Again on November 22, the government extended the term of the commission till May, 24, 2024.
Multiple probes took a toll on contractors whose payments were already pending for the past three years. The government, while forming the SITs and the commission, said the payments of contractors will be cleared after the submission of reports.
Irked by this development, the contractors in September halted civic works which were under way in protest. This forced the government to release a portion of funds under the Amrutha Nagarothana Yojana and the BBMP grants.
The contractors further alleged during the course of the probe that the government in the guise of SITs was harassing them and later approached the High Court, which stayed the investigation on December 7 and directed the government to submit a report in 45 days.
Following this, the government has now shut down the SITs and said the H.N. Nagamohan Das Commission will continue the probe. This means interim reports submitted by the SITs and the documents will be handed over to the Commission.
Mr. Das, talking to The Hindu, said so far he has neither received reports from SITs nor from the government.
According to sources in the SIT, Mr. Biswas had submitted an interim report pertaining to road infrastructure along with documents highlighting impropriety in the civic works. Mr. Biswas refused to divulge details of the report.
