The Chief Minister’s Office has received oral complaints, but will the official concerned be shunted out from UDD?
BENGALURU:
This story may disturb a few bureaucrats and even Karnataka’s Chief Minister’s Office. The reason: it could become another ‘hot potato’ issue following the controversy generated by contractors in Bengaluru writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Office about their having to meet ‘demands’ of a 40% commission for civil works.
This time, the spotlight is on the Urban Development Department (UDD), the department which is charged with looking after BBMP, as well as Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, who is in-charge of Bengaluru development, and 1989-batch IAS officer Rakesh Singh, who is Additional Chief Secretary of the UDD.
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Sources close to the CMO told TheBengaluruLive that an official in the UDD has demanded Rs 2 crore to allow the ‘smooth promotion’ of around 65 engineers from the assistant engineer’s post to that of assistant executive engineer.
Sanctioned posts
Sources also said that the UDD has recently sanctioned around 236 assistant executive engineer posts to BBMP and that 70 engineers are to get promotions from assistant engineer to assistant executive engineer, while around 65 of them are eligible for the promotions.
“Promotions are part of the services but it becomes very difficult when our own officials start demanding money for issuing promotion orders. All are not corrupt in the system and all cannot fulfill the demands of seniors. Several assistant engineers who are scheduled for their promotions as assistant executive engineers were shocked when one official in the UDD demanded Rs 2 crore as a lumpsum from all these engineers,” said an engineer who is eagerly waiting to get his promotion post.
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Tight-lipped
TheBengaluruLive tried to get confirmation of the allegation from some UDD officials but they were tight-lipped. We have even sent a WhatsApp message to the UDD’s Additional Chief Secretary Rakesh Singh, who is also BBMP’s Administrator, asking him whether he is aware of an officer from the UDD demanding Rs 2 crore from assistant engineers. But we had not received any reply from him till this story was published online.
Sources also said that officials in the CMO are also shocked after several engineers approached a few seniors and complained about the alleged demand. We have also sent a message to the CMO but there was no reply. It is said that the collection demand was also made to ‘take care’ of several officials in the CMO too.
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