A day after contractor and BJP worker from Belagavi, Santhosh Patil, who had accused Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister K.S. Eshwarappa of demanding "40 per cent commission", was found dead in a hotel room in Udupi, the Karnataka State Contractors Association (KSCA) called upon the Basavaraj Bommai government to put an end to "corruption".
The association demanded a probe into the irregularities by a retired judge of the High Court or Supreme Court. KSCA sought resignation of Eshwarappa as minister and criminal proceedings against him.
The association threatened to halt all civic works for a month if the state government fails to put an end to the "rampant corruption" and the "40 per cent kickbacks" within 15 days.
"We will be staging a protest in Bengaluru on May 25, where 50,000 contractors from across the state are expected to take part. Our pleas have fallen in deaf ears. We appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai too, but to no avail. We will halt all the civil works if the government does not end this menace," said D. Kempanna, president of KSCA, addressing a press meet in Bengaluru on Wednesday.
The association threatened to release documentary evidence against five-six ministers and 20-25 MLAs who are corrupt.
Elaborating on the documentary evidences against corrupt ministers, Kempanna said, "All the departments, including the chief minister's office, irrigation, rural development, health, PWD, and BBMP are corrupt. In fact, health department is the king of corruption and Dr. K. Sudhakar is directly responsible for it. He takes five per cent commission to approve the tender, which is unheard of. In his department, building works worth Rs 2,000 crore is going on. And the minister's family has bagged 60 per cent of all works. The chief minister is least bothered about corruption."
The association stated that the total outstanding amount for various works in the state stood at Rs 22,000 crore. "The pending bills is Rs 22,000 crore accrued over the last three years. We borrow money from the market, and delay in clearing the bill will destroy our life," rued the members.
'Justice for Santhosh Patil'
The KSCA demanded the government to pay a compensation of Rs 2 crore to Patil's family, and sought immediate release of the pending bill amount of Rs 4 crore, besides a government job for Jayashree, wife of the deceased contractor.
To a question, Kempanna stated that Patil had contacted the association a fortnight ago and told them that the minister (Eshwarappa) had filed a defamation case against him. "Santhosh is not our member. But we offered him legal assistance to fight the case. He even told us that he had not visited home for 45 days as he was facing threats. This government is resorting to rowdyism. Many contractors have evidence against the ministers' corruption but choose to remain mum out of fear," said Kempanna, adding that KSCA had nearly one lakh members.
'No work order culture'
RDPR Minister Eshwarappa, while refusing to resign, said the pending bills could not have been settled as Patil had no work order issued by the department to do the civil work in Hindalga.
The contractors claimed that it is an open secret that more than 50 per cent of the civil works in government departments are being carried out without a work order. "Our tender process is long and tedious. Often, the contractors end up doing work based on oral instructions from the ministers and MLAs. Some are emergency work and cannot wait for the tender process to be completed. There are many irregularities and lack of transparency in tendering process too. Many senior officers in the departments give out piece work to multiple contractors, which is against the rule. In Patil's case too, the Rs 4 crore worth work was broken down and given as 108 works," said a contractor on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Sudhakar dubbed Kempanna as a "Congress agent" and urged the chief minister to initiate action against him for making baseless allegations against the state government.
"Kempanna is making baseless allegation. It is time the CM blacklists him and cancels his contractor's license. I will file a defamation case against him," said Sudhakar.
Earlier, Kempanna claimed that the ministers and agents had been reaching out to his family members to rein him in. "My wife told me not to speak against the ministers in today's press meet. But I am already 80. At the most they will kill me. Let them. I want the corruption to end. I admit that as contractors, we were the ones who allowed corruption to breed. I regret it."
