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Minister threatened official if he doesn’t collect commission, claim K’taka contractors
D Kempanna was referring to Munirathna, Karnataka’s minister for horticulture, planning programme monitoring and statistics and the Kolar district in charge.
The Karnataka state contractors’ association on Wednesday levelled serious corruption allegations against the ruling BJP, saying a minister in charge of Kolara district has threatened to suspend an executive engineer if he does not collect commission from contractors.
“The (Kolara) district minister tells the executive engineer that if he does not collect money (from contractors) he will be suspended. What is this?” D Kempanna, the president of the association, told reporters in Bengaluru. “They should be ashamed,” he said.
Kempanna was referring to Munirathna, Karnataka’s minister for horticulture, planning programme monitoring and statistics and the Kolar district in charge. Munirathna is the BJP legislator from Rajarajeshwari Nagar in Bengaluru.
The statements come at a time when allegations against the Basavaraj Bommai-led administration have piled up with the likes of KS Eshwarappa, Ramesh Jarkiholi, CN Ashwath Narayan and the chief minister himself being accused of graft.
Munirathna said: “They have made an allegation on guidance of Siddaramaiah. If anyone has suffered losses, I have seen them go to courts, ACB, but going to the opposition leader’s house and then talking to the media, I haven’t seen.” He said this was a conspiracy that was politically motivated and will seek legal advice and take appropriate action.
Kempanna met with Congress leader Siddaramaiah, which has given the principal opposition party more ammunition to attack the BJP in the run up to the 2023 assembly elections.
Siddaramaiah said: “They (contractors) had mentioned Munirathna’s name. They said irrigation, PWD (public works department) zilla panchayat, rural development... 30-40% commission is going on. Before the tender itself, they are demanding bribes. It has been over a year since they wrote to the prime minister, but nothing has happened. They have said that let there be a judicial enquiry and they will hand over all documents and have also said that they will face any action if corruption charges are not proved.”
In November, a letter written by the association to Prime Minister Narendra Modi surfaced, in which they had alleged that elected representatives and other officials were harassing them and demanding bribes.
The allegations levelled by one section of contractors against the state government (present and past) and officials in Karnataka had rekindled the debate on the close nexus between elected representatives and their stooges who end up getting most of the tenders in public works.
Relatives and kin are known to benefit from some of these tenders, which range from small contracts to big-ticket projects that are often referred to as “kickbacks”.
Santosh Patil, a contractor was found dead, weeks after he made allegations that he was being harassed by then rural development and panchayat raj minister KS Eshwarappa to cough up 40% commission for works of ₹4 crore done in Hindalga village of Belagavi district.
On Wednesday, health minister K Sudhakar said: “Kempanna has started giving erroneous statements after meeting with opposition leader and former chief minister Siddaramaiah. Ther Congress, which was thrown out of power by people because of corruption, is using him as a pawn for political gains.”
Sudhakar said Kempanna can approach the Lokayukta and that Bommai has held a meeting with contractors and received their suggestions, complaints and requests.
“The Karnataka government is ready to provide further assistance to Kempanna if he wants. If he is really socially concerned, he could have gone and complained to the Lokayukta. However, this is Congress sponsored and it is an attempt to make this an election agenda. Congress has been thrown out of power across the country by the people for all the corruption they have done. Now, the congress is trying to question BJP. The congress is raking up such issues for elections. This is a conspiracy and desperate attempt to malign the BJP Government’s image,” he said.
