Jagadish Shettar sees Patil's hand in Rs 190 crore lab scam, seeks probe

Bengaluru: Senior BJP leader and former Chief Minister, Jagadish Shettar  on Friday demanded the resignation of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister, H.K. Patil, for allegedly walking away with a cool Rs 190 crore while awarding a tender for setting up  drinking water testing labs in the state.

Also demanding  a high level inquiry into the alleged scam,  Mr. Shettar claimed the minister had unduely favoured one Prasad Raipati in awarding the tender for establishing 146 water testing labs in the taluks. “Mr Rajpati was given the tender in violation of the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurement (KTPP) Act 1999,” he charged, releasing  documents to back his claim at a press conference here.

While the KTPP Act insisted on only those with product units or with a certified supplier bidding for such work in the department, Mr. Raipati was allowed to  bid for it although he had no  business at the time and only later founded a company called RAY Environ, Mr Shettar said. Even worse, a few clauses were added to the tender notification saying bids submitted by a joint venture were acceptable only to help Mr Rajpati, who  entered into a joint venture agreement with Sri Srinivas Construction India Private Limited to do the project, he alleged.

While in the first phase, he  was given the job of setting up 80 water testing labs, another 60 were also given to him  later in  various taluks without calling for a fresh tender, the opposition leader alleged.

“Although Mr. Raipati has still not set up the labs,  he has charged an exorbitant fee for water testing by submitting  bogus bills,” Mr Shettar claimed.