Sandesh Swamy blames officers for the mess; writes to CM seeking stern action against them

Mysuru: Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) is on the verge of bankruptcy, thanks to the lackadaisical attitude of officers, bemoaned former Mayor and BJP leader Sandesh Swamy.

Addressing a press meet at his office in city recently, Sandesh Swamy recalled that during the tenure of B.S. Yediyurappa as Chief Minister in 2011, Rs. 100 crore was provided for development works in Mysuru under which Cellar Parking was planned at Town Hall premises and tender was invited for Rs. 11.2 crore. 

Topping it up, a work order was also placed for a sum of Rs. 18.25 crore and a deadline was fixed to complete the work assigned. Subsequently, the assigned contractor was paid Rs. 4.4 crore in 2014 and another Rs. 6.6 crore in 2016, adding up to Rs. 11 crore.

Despite paying the amount, the work has not been completed though several MCC Commissioners have come and gone. Though the assigned contractor Chhabria Associates was dropped and the work was assigned to another contractor, the work has still not been completed, he said.

In 2017, Chhabria Associates, having taken Rs. 11 crore alleging that the balance of Rs. 7.25 crore has not been paid, filed an arbitrary case for Rs. 21 crore claiming that the balance amount of Rs. 7 crore has not been paid. 

The Arbitrary Court has asked MCC to pay Rs. 21 crore with interest to Chhabria Associates. The MCC officers have failed to provide proper evidence and documents to the Court obviously driving MCC to bankruptcy clearly exposing the irresponsibility of the officers concerned, asserted Sandesh Swamy.

Karanji Lake

The former Mayor continued that it was proposed to construct a Retaining Wall to Karanji Lake Bund Road using the Rs. 100 crore grants. A tender was floated for Rs. 3.59 crore. A few people had opposed construction of a stretch of 400 metre of the Retaining Wall alleging that it would make access to a nearby temple difficult which eventually delayed the work by a year. 

Having received the amount of Rs. 3.59 crore, the assigned contractor has filed a case in the Arbitrary Court seeking another Rs. 4 crore with the Court ordering MCC to pay the amount to the contractor thus making MCC more miserable, he explained.

Sandesh Swamy said that he has written a letter to Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa drawing his attention to the deplorable financial condition of MCC squarely blaming the officials concerned seeking a stern action.

Water supply

With a novel intention to supply water round-the-clock to residents of city, MCC had decided to lay new pipelines and fix water meters to all connections which were not totally accomplished owing to lack of co-ordination between contractors and officers coupled with lack of clear information and system. 

When JUSCO contract failed, Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board (KUWS&DB) roped in IMSL Company for a contract of Rs. 230 crore and the project derailed after three years with hotchpotch work.

Under the AMRUT Scheme it was proposed to supply water from Belagola, Hongalli, Melapura and Kabini to city with Central and State funding of Rs. 194 crore with a set deadline of 2 years. Ironically, the project has not begun yet.  Though totally Rs. 660 crore has been spent on JUSCO, IMSL and AMURT, the water supply in Mysuru City has not improved, regretted Sandesh Swamy.

He said that KUWS&DB failed to initiate any work citing that the tendered amount was short by Rs. 4 crore putting the blame on the technical officers concerned for having not reckoned the cost of pump sets and transformers needed for the project and hence demanded another Rs. 4.6 crore to commence the work. 

He contended that MCC continues to spend over a crore of rupees to supply water in tankers to residents. He added that he has requested the CM to review the irregularities and appoint a proper Commissioner to MCC. Former Deputy Mayor Mahadevappa was present during the press meet.