Bad times for BMP cliques?

Bad times for BMP cliques?
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: As the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) goes to the polls by November, the government is thinking of tough measures to prevent abuse of power by the ruling Congress at the civic body.

And it is thinking of bringing back former commissioner K Jairaj to handle corrupt councillors, who along with their contractor-kin, are swindling huge amounts every year.

The proposal is seen more as streamlining action than as anything adverse against BMP commissioner K Jothiramalingam. If nothing else, the government seems to be banking on Jairaj’s skills in media management.

As BMP commissioner Jairaj was more in news than daily weather reports and he handled it well.

While the incumbent commissioner K Jothiramalingam is known to be apolitical, Jairaj is famous as former chief minister S M Krishna’s Man Friday. Jairaj was BMP commissioner during the Krishna government and had been instrumental in introducing the Self Assesment System for property tax and in setting up of Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF).

Jairaj is a 1976 batch IAS officer, who hails from Kodagu in Karnataka and is currently posted as senior public management specialist at the World Bank. He is remembered in the BMP for his tough action against the contractor-councillor nexus. In fact, it is said that this lobby had pressured Krishna to transfer Jairaj out of BMP.

That is when Jothiramalingam was posted to BMP. A 1978 batch IAS officer, Jothiramalingam is known to prefer soft options to tough measures. An MBA from an Australian University, he would rather work towards systemic changes than take anyone head on.

Interestingly both Jairaj and Jothiramalingam had a stint with Karnataka Power Corporation as MDs and trust its engineers more than those coming on deputation from the PWD. The BMP has a large number of officials who are said to be Gowda loyalists and Jairaj may find the BMP workplace very different from what it was during the Krishna regime. But BMP contractors and councillors are definitely in for tough times.