BBMP in the dock: 40% of money went unspent in HSR Layout in last 5 years 1

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By Zahid H Javali

In the last five years, only 40% of the money was spent on BBMP works in HSR Layout. Out of the Rs 200 crore allocated for 368 approved projects, only 152 were executed for Rs 115 crore. Much of the work that went unspent was in the financial year of 2019-20; only 30 works were completed for Rs 39 crore against the allocated amount of Rs 102 crore for 115 projects. Nearly 60% of the works were not completed in the last financial year alone. The record was even more dismal in 2018-2019 when nearly 80% of the work never got done. In 2017-2018, the record was much better as more than 90% of the money was “spent”. In 2016-17, 33% of the money went back to the BBMP coffers. In 2015-16, less than 20% was un-utilised.

152 out of 368 projects were “executed” in last five years

Nailing the BBMP officials is difficult unless you have hard data to substantiate it. Now, you can. The Bengaluru Navanirmana Party (BNP) has launched a citizen portal that gives you ward-wise works of the last five years. Armed with the information on HSR Layout that only 152 out of 368 approved projects were executed from 2015-2020, the residents and civic activists can confront the civic agency and the local netas on why the works never got done. Not only will this sort of ‘social audit’ usher in transparency but also accountability in the way BBMP does its work. But is this data authentic? “Yes, it is sourced from the muddled interface of BBMP’s portal,” says Lalithamba BV, HSR Layout resident and BNP core member. “It took 20 people more than a month to collate all the data from the civic agency’s website.”

The news has also come as a surprise to some residents. “We were not aware of these details, and don’t know why the money went unspent,” says HE Chandrashekar, Chairman, Federation of HSR Layout Residents Welfare Association. “Whenever we go to the BBMP for any job, they always cite the lack of funds.”

Weak ‘Ward Committees’ to blame

Civic activists blame the lack of progress on ground for the dismal state of affairs. Another reason is the weak composition of ward committees filled with political cronies appointed by the corporator. This goes against the KMC Act, according to CIVIC Bangalore’s executive trustee Kathyayini Chamaraj. She has written a letter to chief minister BS Yeddyurappa to let the BBMP Commissioner directly appoint the Ward Committee members instead of delegating it to the corporators as this practice is illegal.

KRIDL is as much at fault

The disreputable government agency Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Limited (KRIDL), which was previously called the Karnataka Land Army Corporation, is as much to blame. After the Karnataka High Court paused all projects taken by KRIDL early this year, such contentious projects were halted. In the HSR Layout ward, 47% of the works in the last five years were awarded to this questionable agency. For over a decade, this firm is being used and abused by the elected representatives to usurp taxpayers’ money. This way of awarding civic works to KRIDL is in violation of Section 4(g) of the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurements Act, which allows for work to be carried out without calling for a tender. Only essential and emergency works are to be carried out by KRIDL, but all sorts of routine works were being handed over to KRIDL.

“As there is no tendering process, you can take 100% of the money without even starting the work,” says civic activist and HSR Layout resident Kavitha Reddy. “If these works go through the BBMP, a tender is called for any project above Rs 1 lakh. A proper vigilance committee goes over the project plan and technically evaluates it. Ofcourse, there is corruption here as well, but it’s still better than KRIDL which does it without any supervision or transparency.” The irony of this approach is that KRIDL sub contracts the work to the same contractors who work for the civic agencies. What’s more, it charges 20% more than the tender amount, and the result is either a shoddy job or worse, no job at all. In 2010 and 2018, KRIDL was blacklisted for shoddy work. Civic experts questioned this practice in 2013 too.

Dummy projects without DPR

Why do the approved projects never get done? Our calls to former corporator Gurumurthy Reddy and V Chalapathi went unanswered. However, observers argue that this could be for many reasons. The projects never had a feasible detailed project report, or there were complications or violations of some kind. “Sometimes, the projects themselves are not found viable because either the state budget has already allocated the money for it, or no prior permissions were taken from the stakeholders before finalising the project,” says Reddy.

What can citizens do now?

With the term of the corporators having ended on September 10, they can only blame the politicians for their inefficiency, and ensure that such elected representatives are not re-elected for their shoddy performance. Besides, this issue should be taken up more seriously at all the ward committee meetings by active citizens and the resident welfare associations. All those who owe any kind of political allegiance to the corporator or MLA should be unceremoniously thrown out or their voices muted at such hearings.

Here are some of the executed and unexecuted works in HSR Layout in 2019-20. Armed with this information, the resident welfare associations can take the officials to task.

All the “executed” projects in HSR Layout in 2019-2020