The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : BMP report claims credit for works done earlier

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 17, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

BMP report claims credit for works done earlier

Afshan Yasmeen

Works which did not start shown as `completed'

BANGALORE: In September 2003, the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) planned to remove silt and strengthen the retaining wall of a major storm water drain from Link Road to Sirur Park Road in the Gandhinagar Assembly constituency. But the drain overflows even now after light rain.

The next April, heavy inflow of water into the storm water drain near the Sujatha theatre caused flooding of low-lying areas and affected over a 100 families in the four cross roads of Ramchandrapuram and Laxminarayanpuram.

All this even after the BMP released funds for the works and claimed that the works have been executed. The administrative report for 2003-2004, likely to be presented in the BMP Council later this month, has shown these works as "completed."

The 2003-2004 report, which had to be presented in the same year, was prepared and printed recently. The BMP officials are solely responsible for preparing and presenting the report, which will be discussed at length by the council members.

The officials, who have always come under fire for delay in presenting the reports, took the council by surprise when they tabled administrative reports for eight years from 1996 to 2003 during the former Mayor, C.M. Nagaraj's, tenure.

Flyovers

The report for 2003-2004, when P.R. Ramesh was Mayor, claimed that work on the Sirsi Circle, the Richmond Circle, and the Mehkri Circle flyovers were completed that year. But these mega city projects started during the previous BMP council's tenure in 1997-98 and were completed even before the new council took over.

Same is the case with the construction of the second phase of the Madiwala commercial complex and the Banashankari electric crematoria, work on which started in 1997.

The restoration of Kempambudhi lake, construction of subways near Shivajinagar bus-stand and the Sangam Talkies and several other projects, which were completed much before 2002, have been shown as those that have been completed in 2003-2004.

Rechip carpeting

As per the BMP's road opening and restoration protocol (RORP), all those agencies who cut roads for laying cables should restore them to the original condition. But the administrative report has shown that the civic body had spent lakhs of rupees on rechip carpeting of pavements and roads all over the city that had been dug by optic fibre cable (OFC) firms, especially Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL), Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Ltd. (KPTCL) and Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom).

The report has shown that funds for remodelling the four major valleys, Koramangala, Challaghatta, Hebbal and Vrishabhavathi, which were approved in 2003-2004, have been released.

But work actually started in May this year after heavy inflow into a major storm water drain along the Vrishabhavathi valley claimed two lives.

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