Bengaluru: A section of public works contractors in Bengaluru has levelled allegations of corruption against the two-month-old Congress government in Karnataka led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
On Tuesday, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Contractors Association, a body 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 bills of executed works for more than two years.
The letter talked about the “high-handed and arbitrary actions of the BBMP in withholding the payments” for “extraneous considerations”.
“The association has received representations from numerous contractors complaining of the illegal and arbitrary stand of the BBMP in refusing to release the payments, and we have also been informed by some of the contractors that a commission of 10-15 percent is being demanded on behalf of the Hon’ble Minister for Bengaluru Development for the release of payments against bills that are certified and approved for payments,” stated the letter which ThePrint has accessed.
Congress state chief and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar holds the portfolio of Bengaluru City Development.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Shivakumar dismissed the allegations as a political conspiracy. “There is no question of me responding to any contractors, I don’t know anything about any bills. I haven’t spoken to any contractors. I am also intelligent. I know contractors and politics, (and) I know who is behind whom. Let them do whatever they want,” he said.
In their letter, the contractors further alleged that the political class withholding payments for works already carried out had left much of their fraternity fragile, “causing contractors to consider giving up their life”.
“The BBMP is attempting to arm-twist the contractors for extraneous considerations budging to political pressure and in the process, the contractors are suffering,” it stated.
“Being driven to a state of desperation, having no other recourse available to us, we have approached your excellency with a hope that your excellency would interfere in this matter at the earliest and prevent the loss of life of the contractors.”
The letter warned that if the bills were not cleared at the earliest, the contractors will have no option but to resort to “lay down our lives”.
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Trading charges
The allegations bring back focus on corruption in Karnataka, an issue that the Congress used against the previous Basavaraj Bommai-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the run up to the May assembly election.
While the Congress stormed to power with campaigns like ‘PayCM’ and ‘40 per cent Sarkara, BJP means Bhrashtachara’, the contractors’ charges have now given the BJP ammunition to attack the ruling party.
C.T. Ravi, former national general secretary of the BJP, Tuesday told the media that the Karnataka government was resorting to issuing threats rather than resolving the demands of contractors.
“Earlier, when there were allegations of 40 percent commission, the BJP government appointed a judicial commission to scrutinise every single tender, especially the big ones… now there are allegations against them (Congress) but they are resorting to threats,” he alleged.
In November 2021, a letter by the Karnataka State Contractors Association to PM Narendra Modi, dated July, had surfaced which alleged that elected representatives and government officials were harassing contractors for bribes. The BJP was then in power in the state. The Congress had turned this into its biggest campaign against the party.
Then in April 2022, the suicide of Santosh Patil, a private contractor, in Udupi made news. Patil had accused then Minister of State for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj K.S. Eshwarappa of demanding a bribe (“commission”) to release payments for works done in Belagavi last February.
Eshwarappa had resigned following the charge. However, an investigation carried out by the police gave him a clean chit.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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