The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has blacklisted Chilume Educational Cultural and Rural Development Institute, after the latter was found to have illegally collected personal data from voters in an investigation by TNM and Pratidvani. In an order issued on Tuesday, December 27, BBMP chief Tushar Giri Nath said that the organisation was blacklisted as it violated the permission letter issued by the BBMP.
Chilume was first contracted to conduct the Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP), a special drive to revise electoral rolls ahead of the Karnataka elections. However, the trust violated the BBMP’s conditions by forging ID cards to pass off their employees as Block Level Officers (BLOs) and other officials, the order stated. It added that Chilume was found to have received a payment of Rs 17.5 lakh from Nandeish Reddy, a former BJP MLA who lost in the 2018 elections from the KR Puram constituency in Bengaluru.
With the order, the BBMP has barred Chilume — as well as other organisations run by its directors — from availing any tender or getting any kind of work from the civic body. Chilume also ran a privately held business called Chilume Enterprises, which specialised in election and event management.
A joint investigation by TNM and the Kannada outlet Pratidvani in November of this year detailed how the voter data theft was enabled by a Government Order (GO). The GO had provided permission to the NGO to ‘create awareness’ about voter rights and revision of electoral rolls. The NGO is also linked to an election management company through Krishnappa Ravikumar. The suspension of three IAS officers in relation to the case — S Rangappa, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Commissioner (Administration), and K Srinivas, Bengaluru Urban Deputy Commissioner — was revoked on December 25, and the officers have now been transferred.