Bengaluru: Former leader of opposition in BBMP and BJP city president N.R. Ramesh has alleged that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has illegally used 439 bus shelters across the city to advertise his government’s achievements and has not paid Rs 68.15 crore advertisement fee to BBMP.
Addressing media persons on Tuesday, Ramesh said,“There are 634 bus shelters, out of which around 439 are illegally utilized by the state government to highlight their achievements on the hoardings at bus shelters. That space was originally meant to provide passengers with route maps, bus number details and other useful information.”
He said that he has filed a case of corruption, cheating and dereliction of duty, under section 7 of the Karnataka Lokayukta Act, 1984 against the Chief Minister, state Chief Secretary, Principal Secretary (department of information), Bengaluru Development Minister K.J. George and BBMP Commissioner.In his second allegation Ramesh said that tenders were approved for six agencies to build skywalks in the city, but all these agencies have been black listed.
“These agencies were listed in the BBMP’s defaulters list as they owe more than Rs 32 crore as advertisement fees,” he said. According to BBMP’s advertisement bye laws 2006, none of the defaulters must be provided any work order.
