A complaint has been filed against Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in the Lokayukta by a BJP corporator on Tuesday.
Yediyur BBMP Corporator NR Ramesh filed a complaint with the Lokayukta against the CM alleging that the Congress party has been utilising BBMP bus stops for advertising the government’s schemes without paying the Palike a single rupee.
According to the complaint, the Congress government has utilised 439 BBMP bus shelters for advertising the government’s welfare schemes.
It also alleges that since May 2015, the Congress party has not paid advertising fee to the BBMP, which amounts to Rs 68.15 crore.
“The BBMP must issue demand notices to those who default on payments for advertising. Siddaramaiah government has instilled fear in BBMP officials due to which the civic body has not issued demand notices to the Congress party’s media relations wing and asked it to pay up crores of rupees that have been utilised at the tax payers’ cost,” the complaint alleges.
With this move, the number of complaints filed against CM Siddaramaiah with the Lokayukta has gone up to 44.
The remaining 43 complaints against him are pending before the Karnataka Lokayukta, and all are at various stages of scrutiny.
This was revealed by the Lokayukta office in its response to a Right to Information query sought by activist Ramamurthy Gowda.
Most of the complaints pertain to the Arkavathy Layout denotification case and the luxury watch controversy.
According to the reply, a total of 56 complaints have been lodged against Siddaramaiah since he became Chief Minister in 2013. Of these, 13 have been closed after inquiry as they were not substantiated by facts. One of the cases couldn’t be made out.
The reply showed that 22 complaints, some of which date back to 2015, are still in the stage of preliminary scrutiny.