Bangalore: It is nothing but shame on part of BBMP if a cheque of Rs 1000 or lesser are bounced. It happened, and even the cheque issued against telephone bill of the BBMP commissioner too bounced!
Majority of the cheques issued towards telephone bills of officials were bounced embarrassing the BBMP which rules Bangalore with a revenue of Rs 5,000 crore annually. Even the cheques of Rs 900 too bounced.
In case of BBMP commissioner M. Lakshminarayan, Rs 6000- odd cheque issued on residential telephone was bounced recently. To further the embarrassment, even a few lines of office telephone were snapped, said sources in BBMP.
This proves testimony of the BBMP’s financial position and the way the finance is being managed by the civic body, which is neck deep in financial crisis. Following the poor management of finance by the BBMP, two crucial accounts of the BBMP were blocked for a week leading to major chaos in the administration during the last week of December, added sources.
BBMP’s two accounts with the Canara Bank were blocked as the payment of required service tax was delayed to the bank. The accounts were frozen for ten days leading major confusion. Since two miscellaneous accounts were blocked officials of all the wings had tough time in getting necessary stationeries to the office, added sources.
Even the BBMP staffs are not spared from the pitiable condition of the finance, as their salary is being delayed by one or two weeks. Under the section 99 of the Karnataka Municipal Corporation (KMC) Act the state government has the provision and power to supersede the civic body for its poor maintenance of the financial affairs.
Already, the BBMP has been under the storm of public ire for pledging heritage buildings of the city to the financial institutions to raise loans and to restructure availed loans. If the BBMP fail to gear up and manage the finance the day would not be far where the BBMP administration gets superseded, added sources.
