Bengaluru: The BBMP Council meet came to an abrupt end on Tuesday when the BJP corporators demanded immediate action against Rajarajeshwari Nagar MLA Munirathna over his alleged role in the fudging of BBMP documents. Amid huge protests and chaos, the Council passed a resolution to hand over the case to the CBI.
The protest came in the wake of the recent Lokayukta raid on a house in Vyalikaval, where it was found that executive engineer Idaya Vendon, assistant engineer Vishwas and first division clerk Shailaja were updating nearly 850 files to the tune of Rs 120 crore belonging to the Rajarajeshwari Nagar zone.
While the ruling party leader N.R Ramesh questioned why the three officials were only suspended instead of facing severe punishment, Opposition leader Manjunath Reddy queried why Vendon was re-appointed though he was imprisoned in the fake bills scam.
All the BJP corporators sought to know why the officials were updating the files in a particular house and who the owner of the house was.
Responding to all the corporators’ questions, BBMP commissioner M. Lakshminarayan, said, “We don’t have information on the owner of the house.
However, the RR Nagar zone officials have confirmed that files belonging to that zone were being updated in the said private building.
Acting on their confirmation, the three officials were suspended. Further action will be taken after the Lokayukta gives its report.”
When the commissioner feigned innocence, Vijayanagar ward corporator H.Ravindra said it was an open secret that the house was owned by MLA Munirathna and that the files were related to his constituency.
“The Lokayukta takes stringent action even in petty cases but why is it not arresting Mr Muniratna now? What more evidence do they want?” he asked.
Surprisingly, Congress corporators maintained silence when Jnana Bharati ward corporator Govindaraju, also from Congress, demanded the MLA’s arrest.
“All the corporators of the constituency have suffered enough. Let the CBI investigate all the wards in RR Nagar zone and ascertain who is at fault.
This incident has brought a bad name to the state government and we don’t want it. Hand over the case to the CBI,” he demanded.
Rajarajeshwari ward corporator G.H Ramachandra questioned why Vendon was working on the day he was supposed to be on leave and especially in this particular case.
The corporators jumped into the well of the house and demanded that the membership of the MLA be cancelled.
