Rs 1.5cr bills scam unearthed from Garbage contractor

BENGALURU: Recently, the Palike unearthed a bills scam worth Rs 1.5 crore after its inquiry found a garbage contractor trying to hoodwink the system.

As per the delving, Venkatesh, contractor of JP Park ward and owner of Om SLV Constructions, had produced fake bills to claim Rs 1.5 crore from the BBMP for lifting and dumping of garbage between December 2016 and December 2017. He had produced the bills to the Rajarajeshwari Nagar zone joint commissioner (JC).

As the bills were signed by a retired officer, the authorities suspected a scam and ordered an inquiry, which also found that the garbage was transported in Ambassador cars and passenger autos.Garbage clearance in JP Park ward has been under the supervision for a while. Venkatesh’s firm had carried the contract to clear garbage from December 2016 and as per the work order, SLV was constrained to lift waste with 21 auto-tippers and two compactors. 

Despite a questionable reputation and complaints from residents, SLV continued to get work from the Palike. On November 30, 2017, a ward committee under the chairmanship of JP Park corporator Mamtha Vasudev requested the same contractor’s name for garbage clearance. On December 30, 2017, fresh work orders were issued in favour of Om SLV Constructions. 

In January 2018, Mamtha wrote to the ward’s assistant executive engineer and superintendent engineer, asking them to entrust the firm with the work.The scam came to light after the assistant executive engineer suspected the contractor was not providing reasonable number of auto-tippers and issued multiple notices to Venkatesh in January, February, March and April 2018. 

In one of the notices, the engineer even threatened to cancel the contract, but the file processing termination of contract couldn’t be passed as the agency had paid the firm to clear garbage in advance.