Firm pledged govt land, meant for co-generation plant, for Rs 52.75-crore bank loan
BENGALURU:
ACB officials on Saturday raided 4 BBMP engineers in connection with a multi-crore loan scam in which government land was pledged to take crores by way of a bank loan.
The raids were conducted at the house of BBMP Engineer KV Ravi in Jayanagar and his office at the BBMP headquarters, the residence of Vigilance Cell Executive Engineer Venkateshappa in Kalyanagar and his office in the BBMP headquarters, the residence of Suresh, retired Executive Engineer, at Indiranagar and the residence of Raghavendra, Assistant Executive Engineer.
Waste-to-power scam
Srinivas Gayatri Resource Recovery Company and BBMP officers have been accused of fraud in taking a bank loan of Rs 52.75 crore by duplicitously pledging government land.
On December 18, 2002, the Palike issued a notification for the implementation of a solid waste generation project. On June 24, 2005, BBMP entered into an agreement with Srinivasa Gayatri Resource Recovery Company. A 35-acre parcel of farmland was given to the company with the stipulaton that the power plant be built and start operations by November 5, 2006.
Not only did the company not utilize the waste for power generation, it dumped the waste in a landfill. The resulting leachate polluted the ground water in Mandur and surrounding areas. Besides, BBMP was also dumping slaughterhouse waste in the landfill, as a result of which animals and flies were attracted to the area, adversely affecting the health of the locals. Subsequently, the contract with the company was terminated on September 14, 2014.
The ACB’s preliminary investigation has revealed that the company secured a bank loan of Rs 52.75 crore by hiding details of the government-alloted land meant for setting up a co-generation plant. It has also emerged that a total of Rs 4.61 crore was collected by the company from BBMP without any waste being processed.
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