BCC Commissioner gets shunted out

BCC gets sixth commissioner in five years
Thursday July 1 2004 The New Indian Express

BANGALORE: Corporators and MLAs seem to have succeeded in replacing Bangalore City Corporation Commissioner M.R. Srinivasa Murthy who had held office just over 18 months.

The differences between Murthy and the elected representatives were nothing new. He had had differences with the previous mayor, K. Chandrashekar, and had been under constant pressure from the city MLAs to bend rules to suit their needs.

Murthy stuck to the rulebook attracting the wrath of the politicians.

Corporators cutting across partylines had demanded the ouster of Murthy when the latter had sent a proposal to wind up the standing committee on town planning and cut the powers of the working committee.

The other grudge against Murthy had been the decision to handover the re-laying of pavement to the government owned Land Army.

Awarding piecework contract also had angered the corporators. Murthy had reduced the number of piecework contracts and sanctioned only those included in the programme of works.

Fed up with constant intervention by the political leaders, Murthy had approached the then Chief Minister, S.M. Krishna, to relieve him from the job. K. Jothiramalingam will be the sixth Commissioner for BCC in five years.

When the S.M. Krishna government had taken charge in October 1999, K.P. Pandey was at the helm.

He was replaced by high profile K. Jairaj, who was unceremoniously sent back within 11 months, replaced by senior officer Shantanu Consul who could never get along with the civic fathers. Three months later, a junior IAS officer, Ashok M. Dalwai, in the downgraded post, replaced him.

Within a year he was transferred and replaced by M.R. Srinivasa Murthy.