Karnataka HC expresses displeasure over compliance report on illegal hoardings, calls it “eye-wash”
Cutting across party lines, they say money is meant only for containment zones
BENGALURU:
In a slap on the face for former BBMP Commissioner BH Anil Kumar, who had filed an affidavit before the Karnataka High Court Chief Justice Abhay Oka in which he had stated that Rs 50 crore would be spent on installing hoardings to create Covid-19 awareness amongst the citizens of Bengaluru, the civic agency has decided to utilise the money for its earlier purpose of distributing food kits in containment zones.
Barely 10 days after Anil Kumar’s transfer from BBMP, JDS party leader in the council Netra Narayan objected to the affidavit, saying the funds were reserved for Covid-related activities in affected wards.
Netra said, “The Rs 50-crore fund was raised from all 198 corporators’ ward development funds. Each corporator had contributed Rs 25 lakh. It is sad to know that the former Commissioner has filed an affidavit before the High Court stating that our money, which was reserved Covid-related work, will be spent on hoardings to create awareness amongst the people.”
Congress party leader Abdul Wajid seconded the opinion of Netra Narayan. Wajid flashed the affidavit copy in the council meeting and said that the reserve fund had to be utilised for people in the containment zones.
Interestingly, the BJP’s senior corporator Padmanabha Reddy also opined that the reserve fund should be utilised in containment zones for providing medicines and food kits, rather than on hoardings.
The BJP’s Manjunath Raju also opposed spending the money on hoardings.
‘Covering its failure’
TheBengalurulive was the first online web portal to highlight how BBMP had failed to create awareness among the people during the four-month lockdown and, to cover its failure, wanted to spend Rs 50 crore of taxpayers’ money for installing ‘awareness’ hoardings.
Also Read: BBMP to cover up its Covid failure with hoardings (https://thebengalurulive.com/bbmp-to-cover-up-its-covid-failure-with-hoardings/)
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