Mathai the crusader shunted out of BBMP, and it just doesn’t ad up
Another one has been made to bite the dust. Within 18 months of being posted as assistant commissioner (advt) at the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), K Mathai has been shunted out with effect from Tuesday. Normally, senior officers get to spend at least two years in any posting.
Mathai faced the wrath of the government for having ostensibly “violated the Karnataka Civil Service rules”. He had submitted eight “unwarranted reports” on hoardings in the city.
Mathai took over the advertisement department when the BJP-ruled civic agency had policies against hoardings in the city. He took suo moto initiation to submit reports pertaining to irregularities in the hoardings and other advertisement businesses.
In his eighth report submitted recently, he held former chief secretary Kaushik Mukherjee, the then BBMP commissioner G Kumar Naik and IAS officer V Rashmi, responsible for not allowing him to initiate action against illegal hoardings.
However, on April 13, Naik wrote a letter to the urban development department (UDD) seeking government’s intervention on the issue saying Mathai’s act was bringing the institution and senior ‘law-abiding’ officers a bad name.
Mathai’s act was considered as anti-institutional since no senior officers, standing committee or BBMP council had sought any kind of report from him. On Tuesday, state government withdrew his services from UDD and repatriated him to the department of personal and administrative reforms.
In its order, UDD said, “There were no directions or orders issued to Mathai to conduct any inquiry and submit the report but he went ahead on his own and tried to damage the image of senior officials. He took the help of media personnel for publicity. He was warned several times. Considering his act against BBMP, the
commissioner had issued him a show-cause notice to him on April 13. Mathai circulated his response to the media. Further on commissioner’s recommendation, Mathai’s services have been withdrawn and strict action has been recommended.”
After the show-cause notice was issued to Mathai, he mailed political leaders claiming he was ready to collect hoarding taxes regularly .
‘My job is to submit report’
Reacting to the developments, Mathai said, “I am ready to face any action. They have the rights to suspend me but I have done my job. Already the senior officials have decentralised the advertisement section and I do not have any job in BBMP. Ins-tead of sitting idle in the office, I investigated and submitted eight reports. The state government has accepted the first report based on which the CID inquiry has been ordered.
“Senior IAS officers and the commissioner did not allow me to work accordingly, or else I would have collected more revenues. Moreover, they stopped me from collecting advertisement tax from Shantalanagar ward despite the revenue reaching Rs 3 crore.”
Mathai faced the wrath of the government for having ostensibly “violated the Karnataka Civil Service rules”. He had submitted eight “unwarranted reports” on hoardings in the city.
Mathai took over the advertisement department when the BJP-ruled civic agency had policies against hoardings in the city. He took suo moto initiation to submit reports pertaining to irregularities in the hoardings and other advertisement businesses.
In his eighth report submitted recently, he held former chief secretary Kaushik Mukherjee, the then BBMP commissioner G Kumar Naik and IAS officer V Rashmi, responsible for not allowing him to initiate action against illegal hoardings.
However, on April 13, Naik wrote a letter to the urban development department (UDD) seeking government’s intervention on the issue saying Mathai’s act was bringing the institution and senior ‘law-abiding’ officers a bad name.
Mathai’s act was considered as anti-institutional since no senior officers, standing committee or BBMP council had sought any kind of report from him. On Tuesday, state government withdrew his services from UDD and repatriated him to the department of personal and administrative reforms.
In its order, UDD said, “There were no directions or orders issued to Mathai to conduct any inquiry and submit the report but he went ahead on his own and tried to damage the image of senior officials. He took the help of media personnel for publicity. He was warned several times. Considering his act against BBMP, the
commissioner had issued him a show-cause notice to him on April 13. Mathai circulated his response to the media. Further on commissioner’s recommendation, Mathai’s services have been withdrawn and strict action has been recommended.”
After the show-cause notice was issued to Mathai, he mailed political leaders claiming he was ready to collect hoarding taxes regularly .
‘My job is to submit report’
Reacting to the developments, Mathai said, “I am ready to face any action. They have the rights to suspend me but I have done my job. Already the senior officials have decentralised the advertisement section and I do not have any job in BBMP. Ins-tead of sitting idle in the office, I investigated and submitted eight reports. The state government has accepted the first report based on which the CID inquiry has been ordered.
“Senior IAS officers and the commissioner did not allow me to work accordingly, or else I would have collected more revenues. Moreover, they stopped me from collecting advertisement tax from Shantalanagar ward despite the revenue reaching Rs 3 crore.”
