The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), which had conducted raids on the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) last week, said it has found large-scale irregularities from fixing Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) to sanctioning apartments on lake land and generating bills amounting to crores to beneficiaries.
ACB officials estimate that Rs 300 crore has not been collected by BBMP towards advertisement revenue alone. A total of 33 BBMP offices had been raided by 200 ACB officers. “Civic officials concerned have not collected advertisement taxes from bus stands and skywalks and also from the newly constructed bus stop under the PPP (public private partnership) model,” said ACB officials.
Town planning section officials allegedly committed large scale irregularities in fixing Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) and created fake records to claim TDR. In many instances, they sanctioned excess TDRs for many projects . “Officials also created fake documents to claim the compensation for the road widening projects. Even the internal vigilance section headed by engineer has not acted on the report submitted to him about the irregularities,” said the ACB.
The ACB claimed that town planning officials concerned had sanctioned a building plan to construct multi storeyed apartments on lake beds and buffer zone, and also approved the land records submitted to them illegally. Documents seized showed that under-construction residential buildings across the city have been issued occupancy certificates. A three-storeyed building plan was allegedly converted into a six-storey structure with approvals.
Property tax revenue loss
The BBMP Revenue Department allegedly fixed minimum tax on residential buildings, multi-storeyed residential complexes, and even commercial complexes and IT companies. Old tax rates have been fixed to the newly constructed buildings and complexes causing revenue loss to the BBMP to the tune of several crores, said the ACB.
Officials also seized records pertaining to Rs. 1,050 crore expenditure for various projects and desilting work which was awarded to only a few contractors since 2017.
In the solid waste management section, a bill of ₹100 crore was created and sanctioned to beneficiaries but no action has been taken against the official concerned, said the ACB.
Rs. 15 crore in property tax collected during raids
While the Anti-Corruption Bureau was conducting raids and search operations, many private firms and individuals rushed to the office to pay their dues . “In the last two days, a total of ₹15 crore has been paid toward taxes,” the ACB officials said.
