Hyderabad: Parks scam unearthed

Hyderabad: GHMC officials have hit new lows. They are now earning money from plantations. In a first, Anti-Corruption Bureau officials have trapped a GHMC officer of the corporation’s biodiversity wing while accepting a bribe for park development.

GHMC officials now make money from plantations, park development and park maintenance. Their modus operandi is to first allocate a contract and while sanctioning the money after the works are completed demand a percentage of the amount. The percentage is between 5 and 10 per cent.

“Earlier, municipal officials were caught accepting bribes while allocating projects to contractors, but the online tender process ended corruption. But the catch is while releasing the sanctioned funds to the contractor.

As per the process the GHMC’s biodiversity wing calls for tenders. The contractor who quotes the least will be given the project. The private party will have to spend funds to execute the project. Once it is completed the GHMC will release the money. Since there is less scope for extracting money during the tendering process, the officials sit on the sanctioned amount. Unless they receive kickbacks from the contractor the file is not passed.

Another way is asking for a percentage. For instance if a project is outsourced for '5 lakh the percentage demanded is between 5 and 10 per cent,” explained ACB deputy superintendent of police V. Ravi Kumar.

The ACB caught a GHMC deputy director red-handed in the last week of March while he was taking a bribe of '30,000 from a contractor for processing a bill.

The official, K. Kishan Rao, deputy director, biodiversity-west zone, had allegedly demanded Rs 1 lakh as bribe from the contractor to process a bill for a park developed at Serilingampally.