Bengaluru: BJP city president N.R. Ramesh has alleged that BBMP's forest wing had submitted fake bills to claim crores as part of its sapling plantation programme.
“Documents accessed from BBMP's forest wing show that already Rs 15.43 crore has been sanctioned for works relating to sapling plantation, maintenance, tree survey and tree numbering. Forest wing claims that including the saplings there are over 1.25 crore trees in the city, much higher than the city’s population,” Ramesh alleged and added that the department is gearing up to submit bills for another Rs 5.47 crore.
Mr Ramesh said, “Usually 5 varieties of species—mahagony, ashoka, honge, neem and sampige are planted. While the cost of each sapling will not exceed Rs 15, forest department charges Rs 175 each.” He said that he will take up this issue with Lokayukata and BMTF by lodging an official complaint on Friday.
Repeated calls to BBMP Mayor Padmavathi and BBMP Commissioner Manjunath Prasad to seek their version were not answered.
