Nellore: Corruption is rampant in the Nellore Municipal Corporation and the rulers of the civic body hardly have any control over it although they are aw-are of what is going on. Nothing happens in the NMC unless the palms of the officials are greased, and political bosses are allegedly more concerned about getting their share than in protecting the interests of the public. Any rule can be bent if the parties are ready to meet the demands of the officials, be it town planning, health or engineering departments.
Political leaders ensure that honest officials, such as K.V.N. Chakradhar Babu, IAS and P.V.V.S. Murthy, who attempt to eliminate corruption and streamline operations, are shunted out within months of joining. Municipal administration at the central and state levels is under the captainship of Mr M. Venkaiah Naidu and P. Narayana respectively, who hail from Nellore.
The corruption is so widespread that funds provided by the Election Commission for intensive revision of the voters' list are also misused by the NMC authorities. The Anti-Corruption Bureau sleuths, who unearthed the fraud after they caught an assistant city planner Munirathnam red-handed on Sunday when he was collecting Rs 50,000 as bribe, say that the incident is only the tip of the iceberg.
According to ACB DSP Thota Prabhakar, NMC officials submitted bills showing outsourced employees working in the civic body as persons hired for enumeration of voters on the list after the treasury rejected the bills they initially presented to make payment to booth level officials for doing double duty. The officers collected the money from the outsourced staff after making them draw the money credited to their accounts by the treasury. ACB sleuths seized Rs 5,32,600 from an outsourced employee Ali's house.
Ali told the ACB officers that commissioner K. Venkateswarlu and manager Rajendra had told him to keep the money in his house. The DSP said that the NMC officials misused Election Commission funds to the extent of '20 lakh and they were going to write a letter to the state government to take further action against the top brass of the civic body.
