4G scam of another kind in BBMP, cries BNP

Bengaluru: After analysing all the projects undertaken by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagra Palike (BBMP), Bengaluru NavaNirmana Party (BNP) alleged misuse of taxpayers money by the civic agency. In what the party calls a 4 (g) scam, the members of the party have said that they had found the palike and the state government to be misusing Clause 4(g) of the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurements Act (KTPPA).

Srikanth Narasimhan, General Secretary of BNP, said, "It is time for citizens of Bengaluru to understand how our hard-earned money is completely mismanaged and goes unaccounted through such brazen acts by elected representatives. BNP is looking to get good citizens elected as Corporators to the BBMP Council and makes a solemn promise to Bengaluru that it will fight to bring transparency & process to BBMP with a view to stopping the corruption, loot & misgovernance, which has been rampant in BBMP!"

The party stated that a deep analysis of projects approved and undertaken by the BBMP at the ward level over the last five years was done.

The party in its statement has said that Clause 4(g) in KTPPA has been completely abused by successive BBMP Councils to give blanket exemptions to Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Ltd (KRIDL) to execute all types of projects including roads, drains, cameras, lights.

Sanjay Mehrotra, Head of Analytics for BNP, said, " A total of 63,629 projects have been approved in the last 5 years with a total approved value of ₹21,653 cr. Out of these, only 28,314 projects have been executed or are under execution with a total value of ₹10,018 cr. Out of these projects executed, almost 50% of these projects worth ₹4,721 cr have been given to a single contractor without any tendering process whatsoever!"

Subbu Hegde, Treasurer of BNP has further alleged that most of the projects do not even go through a tender!

"Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Ltd. (KRIDL) is the agency that has been bagging these contracts and they also get paid a commission of almost 10% on every project! Thousands of crores of projects given to a single contractor without any tendering process and with a commission, leaves a high degree of scope for corruption & misgovernance. This is a gross violation of norms, process and basic principles of governance!"