No luxuries for BBMP babus

Updated on: 22 July,2011 06:30 AM IST |
Mohammed Yacoob |

The civic body has embarked on an austerity drive and has saved Rs 6 crore of public money by withdrawing 600 cars and 1,200 mobile phone connections from officials

The civic body has embarked on an austerity drive and has saved Rs 6 crore of public money by withdrawing 600 cars and 1,200 mobile phone connections from officials.

The decision came at a closed-door meeting chaired by Commissioner Siddaiah and attended by top officials.
Siddaiah later told MiD DAY, "We have saved Rs 6 crore by severing the contract for cabs used by BBMP. Six hundred car contracts have been cancelled along with 1,200 mobile phone connections given by the BBMP to officials."

Not for the tops
The Standing Committee Chairman for Taxation and Finance (T&F), Manjunath Raju, who attended the meeting spoke in support of the commissioner said, "We need to have a holistic approach towards this move. Whatever was found to be unwanted in terms of expenditure has been taken off."

For now however, only officials going on field duty are exempt from the list. However, the opposition Congress termed the idea as 'null and void.'

"These measures will not help the public in any way. In fact, officials will now be unreachable. Also, they will deliberately turn up late for important meetings, citing transport as a major issue," said Byrathi Basavaraju, corporator from K R Puram.