BMTC, an indifferent landlord

BMTC, an indifferent landlord

Anil Kumar Sastry
No proper records maintained on payment of rents, bills and taxes
The corporation is yet to collect

Rs. 2 crore in rent

Top official insists there is no scam

BANGALORE: The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) loses no time in increasing bus fares each time fuel prices go up but when it comes to putting its own house in order, there appears to be no alacrity.

The corporation leases its property to several shops and curiously these commercial establishments collectively owe it over Rs. 2 crore for some time now.

Stranger still, once the scam was detected, only two clerks in the Commercial Department were suspended. The incident came to light after Shankaranarayana Bhat, an RTI activist from Balehonnur, sought information from BMTC about the dealings in the Commercial Department.

Mr. Bhat told The Hindu that two clerks alone could not ‘undertake’ such a massive operation and alleged at least 32 officials, right from the clerks to the head of the department, were involved in the scam.

Inquiry
BMTC Managing Director Syed Zameer Pasha told The Hindu that an inquiry was being conducted by the Chief Security and Vigilance Officer and the report was awaited within a few days.

The inquiry included everyone, right from the Chief Traffic Manager (Commercial) to the lowest rung clerk. The CTM (C), under whose tenure the amount became overdue, was working as the CTM (Operations).

Sources in BMTC pointed out that initially the inquiry against the CTM (C) was referred to the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) since it was the cadre management authority.

However, KSRTC sent the reference back saying the issues were not clear and asked BMTC to make the charges clear, the KSRTC sources said.

Preliminary report
In his preliminary report to the CTM (C) made available to Mr. Bhat, the Divisional Traffic Controller (Commercial), said the clerk dealing with commercial shops, parking lots, telephone booths, toilets and open spaces did not maintain any proper record about the payment of rental, electricity bill, water bill and service taxes.

Arrears
After issuing several reminders, the clerk provided details of arrears wherein Rs. 2,35,37,368 was due from 158 commercial establishments.

The DTC said the arrears due to BMTC were over and above the security deposit taken by the corporation from the licensees and hence recommended suitable action.

Even as DTC’s report says Rs. 2.35 crore was due from commercial establishments and there had been gross negligence on the part of officials concerned, the incumbent CTM (C) wrote to Mr. Bhat that there was no scam in the department.

“Only there had been delay in payment of licence fee from the licensees and steps had been taken to immediately recover the dues,” the CTM said in his letter.

A few senior BMTC officials maintained that a major portion of the arrears (around Rs. 1.25 crore) was due from government departments.

Revenue Department had been occupying portion of BMTC’s Shanthinagar complex while the Police Department occupied a portion of BMTC’s Shivajinagar Bus Terminal.

Lakhs of rupees of rent were due from these departments and the BMTC was successful in recovering considerable portion of arrears, the officials said.