A Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) proposal to the Urban Development Department (UDD) on possible punishment for officials who violate provisions of the Karnataka Municipal Councils (KMC) Act, 1976, has been languishing since January. The suggestions range from fines (₹5,000 to ₹50,000) to up to two years’ simple imprisonment. The UDD has said that the suggestions would be taken up along with other proposed amendments to the Act.
Last August, after floods rocked parts of Bengaluru, the Karnataka High Court had observed that stringent action needs to be initiated against officials who failed to prevent illegal construction on storm water drains and pulled up the State government for not specifying the nature and extent of punishment for erring officials. This prompted the BBMP to draft the rules.
BBMP Commissioner Manjunath N. Prasad said that more than 50 types of punishment had been specified for different types of violations. “The draft rules were sent to the State government last December,” he said. The rules will fix an anomaly in Section 321B of the KMC Act, which came into force on September 15, 2007, and which prescribes a ‘penalty against jurisdictional officer failing to prevent unauthorised deviations or constructions’.
Although the section states that such officers ‘shall be liable for such punishment as may be prescribed’, the nature of punishment was not spelt out.
Avin T.H., BBMP Legal Cell Chief Secretary, said that this meant that many a time, officials were let off lightly. “The BBMP has not initiated criminal proceedings against any official to date. Even department enquiries have not been taken up seriously,” he added.
“Punishments have been suggested for various offences, say for cases where officials have not stopped illegal construction, given khata for BBMP land or given approval for building on agriculture land,” said Mr. Avin.
Currently, under the Karnataka Service Conduct Rules, departments can conduct an enquiry against officials. However, sources say, until now punishments have been minor, in the form of a demotion or cancellation of increments. Urban Development Department Deputy Secretary Prakash Nittali said, “As the department is planning to amend many other sections of the KMC Act, we decided to consider the BBMP’s proposal on Section 321 too,” he said.