Senior BBMP officials are responsive: Chandrashekar

Senior BBMP officials are responsive: Chandrashekar

Special Correspondent

Action sought against engineers party to construction of unauthorised buildings

Bangalore: Chairman of the Legislative Council B.K. Chandrashekar has clarified that what he said at the Rotary felicitation here on Sunday was that the “compounding fee under the Sakrama scheme was based on the 2005 guidance value which several residents feel was on the higher side and he had said that the government/BBMP had rejected the 2007 guidance value which would have been much higher.”

In a rejoinder to the report published in The Hindu on Monday, Mr. Chandrashekar denied that he had said that the BBMP “was charging an exorbitant compounding fee” and that “the BBMP had failed in maintaining cleanliness, roads, footpaths and streetlights.”
Responsibilities

Prof. Chandrashekar said that the engineering staff at the lower level often failed in their responsibilities of maintaining roads while senior-level officers in the corporation were responsive.

Indeed, he said that he had explicitly referred to responsive and positive disposition of Joint Commissioner Yashwanth, Commissioner S. Subramanya and others. He strongly recommended that action be taken against engineers, who were party to construction of unauthorised buildings for the last three decades.

He added that the commissioner was not empowered to initiate action against engineers working on deputation from the Department of Public Works and this needed a change.

They had been the beneficiaries of unauthorised structures, the Legislative Council Chairman added.

Prof. Chandrashekar said, “it will not only be unfair on my part, but will demoralise BBMP officers — especially at the middle and higher level — who are doing their best under unfavourable political conditions.”