The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Clearing of drains blocked

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 03, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Clearing of drains blocked

S. Rajendran

Lokayukta has asked the Chief Engineer to speed up the probe

— Photo: K. Murali Kumar

FLOOD-PRONE: A storm water drain full of garbage and debris along Bannerghatta Road in Bangalore.

BANGALORE: The Karnataka Lokayukta has directed its investigation wing to speed up the probe into what has been termed a major scam relating to removing silt from storm water drains in Bangalore. The investigation has been on for the past one year.

Most of Bangalore’s arterial storm water drains are choked and the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike has in a way held the Lokayukta responsible for all the flooding on some main roads on rainy days since the long delay into the investigation of the scam has hampered the work on removing silt.

Yeddyurappa’s visit

Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa is scheduled to visit all the rain-affected areas of Bangalore on Tuesday and the focus would obviously be on the choked storm water drains and the encroachment of water bodies and drains. It is another matter that garbage and debris are dumped into the drains.

Lokayukta N. Santosh Hegde told The Hindu that the major investigation had been handed over to Chief Engineer Anil Kumar (attached to the Lokayukta) and he had been directed to expedite the inquiry.

“There are vested interests who are attempting to portray the Lokayukta in a bad light. Recommendations will be made to the Government soon after the receipt of a report. Those responsible for the scam have to be fixed. It is obvious that if a large quantum of silt has been removed from the drains then it should be dumped somewhere. There are several (lacunae).”

Investigator quits

In another interesting development, Chief Investigating Officer Dodda Chowdappa, who was accorded the status of an adviser to the Lokayukta to investigate the major scam, quit even as the investigation was in the final stages.

Mr. Chowdappa preferred to get into electoral politics and contested the Legislative Assembly elections as an independent from the Mulbagal constituency in Kolar district.

The yet-to-be-completed investigation had now resulted in a tiff of sorts between the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike and the Lokayukta.

Mr. Chowdappa told The Hindu that the investigation into the scam was a long-drawn process and prior to his resignation he had inspected nearly 256 km of the drains out of 800 km.

Report awaited

BBMP Commissioner S. Subramanya said removing silt from storm water drains had been kept in abeyance pending the completion of the probe.

“We are awaiting the report before restarting the works.”

The heavy rains in Bangalore over the past few days and the overflowing drains which had impaired movement of traffic on several arterial roads had come in handy for a section of BBMP officials to point a finger at the Lokayukta.

The removing of silt from the storm water drains had been kept on hold since mid-2007 when the major scam came to light.

The subject was hotly discussed in the Legislative Assembly and the H.D. Kumaraswamy Government called upon the Lokayukta for a thorough probe into the charges levelled against BBMP officials and contractors.

Work on the storm water drains, which was taken up with much pomp and show at a cost of about Rs. 650 crore in 2006 under the JNNURM, had thus remained suspended and the BBMP was losing out on the allocation of funds for the scheme this year as well.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka