The anti-corruption bureau of the Lokayukta carried out a series of spot inspections in Mandya district spread over 4 days to ascertain charges of corruption in the Hemavati Canal repair works.
The complaint was lodged by Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS) which had filed a 570-page complaint suspecting embezzlement of funds to the tune of crores of rupees for repairs that were either shoddy in nature or were billed but not carried out.
The civic works which were being questioned pertained to repair of irrigation canals in K.R.Pet taluk, a lift irrigation project in Godehosahalli in Kikkeri taluk, construction of a retaining wall and repair of the sluice canal of Hosaholalu Dodda Kere, among others.
The Lokayukta staff conducted the inspection along different stretches of the canal from July 13 to 16 but the complainant, Nage Gowda of KRRS, has raised fresh concern that all the issues flagged by him were not addressed during the spot inspection.
He has written to the office of the Lokayukta stating that the team which conducted the site inspection refused to visit the spot from where the gravel was supposedly excavated. The significance of the fact that sand and gravel supposed to have been extracted from a village - Chowdahalli – did not even exist and was fictitious in nature, was lost on the investigating team which brushed it aside, said Mr. Nage Gowda.
The complaint was originally filed in March and the KRRS activist had also drawn the attention of the Governor, the Chief Secretary and other officials in the bureaucracy to seek inquiry to what he suspected to be a scam.
Meanwhile, the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS) wants Mandya MP Sumalatha to raise her voice against the alleged corruption in the modernisation of Hemavati Canal criss-crossing through Mandya district.
KRRS leader K.R. Jayaram and Mandya district unit vice-president Maruvanahalli Shankar said that Ms. Sumalatha should take up the cause just as she had taken up the issue of quarrying around KRS dam and its implications on the safety of the reservoir.
The KRRS said the modernisation of Hemavathi Canal which irrigates vast swathe of agricultural land in K.R.Pet, Nagamangala, Pandavpura, Mandya and Maddur taluk was shoddy in nature.
Though the Lokayukta took up the spot inspection following complaints, the local engineers tried to misguide them in a bid to hush up the scam, alleged the KRRS. Hence it appealed to Ms.Sumalatha to conduct a spot visit similar to her visit to the quarry units in Mandya recently so as to unravel the scam.
