H K Patil giving contracts only to his friends, kin: Jagadish Shettar

Bengaluru: Targeting the Congress party’s “Mr Clean,” Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister, H K Patil, again, senior BJP leader, Jagadish Shettar, claimed on Saturday that he had flouted all rules and regulations to favour his friends and relatives when awarding contracts for supply of furniture worth Rs 17.5 crores to the offices of the Department of Rural Water Supply and Sanitation in Bengaluru, Belagavi and Kalaburgi divisions.

Speaking to reporters here Mr Shettar charged that tenders were not called before the contracts were awarded for supply of  “substandard China- made” furniture  to these government offices. “While the contract to supply furniture for the Bengaluru division was given to Center Supply Services owned by one Mr Govindareddy,  for Belagavi and Kalburagi divisions it was given to Mr R G Kamanagouda, a relative of the minister.  

“Tenders were not called under the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurement as required,” he claimed, demanding Mr Patil’s resignation for his "favouritism" in awarding the contracts.

Coming down hard on the minister’s attempt to put the blame on officers for the water testing laboratories scam,  Mr Shettar said he could not escape responsibility for the slew of scandals in his department.

“I will soon expose another scam pertaining to purchase of computers in the department of rural water supply and sanitation,” he warned, also charging textile minister, Baburao Chinchansur with failing to take action against four officials  involved in misappropriation of Rs 6.17 crore in the Karnataka Handloom and Powerloom Development Corporation in 2008-13.

Demanding a fresh inquiry into the scam, Mr. Shettar urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to drop both the ministers from his Cabinet.

13 RDPR officers suspended

In swift action, 13 officers of rural development and panchayat raj department were placed under suspension pending inquiry into two scams, RDPR minister H K Patil said on Saturday.

He told the media here six officers belonging to engineering and accounts sections — T Girish, Narasimhappa, Ashraf, R R Kantikar, S P Chandrashekar, S B Krishnappa and Sukanya—were placed under suspension with immediate effect for their alleged involvement in Rs 57.40 lakh scam.

A case has been registered against them at Seshadripuram Police Station for necessary action. The accused had siphoned off Rs 57.40 lakhs collected from contractors as registration renewal fees between June 2015 and March 2016 but not deposited the amount in banks. They allegedly created fake challans and misappropriated the money. Based on an inquiry by the chief engineer, all these officers were placed under suspension.