Karnataka contractors allege harassment by Ministers, BJP MLAs for bribe

Bengaluru: The Karnataka State Contractors’ Association on Monday alleged that they are being pestered by the Ministers and ruling BJP MLAs to pay them bribe.

The Association members released before reporters here a purported conversation on WhatsApp and the audio of the conversation with the MLAs seeking money.

According to them, at least 14 MLAs and three or four Ministers were involved in the alleged extortion.

The Association working president Manjunath accused an MLA with arm-twisting an assistant executive engineer to collect bribe from the contractors.

He claimed that he paid money to the MLA directly and also through engineers. “I've been giving the bribe to the BJP MLA in installments since 2019,” Manjunath alleged.

The contractor claimed that he had paid Rs 20 lakh for a hospital construction work, Rs 12.5 lakh for PWD work, Rs 10 lakh during the COVID first wave and Rs 12 lakh during the second.

This apart, he paid Rs 22 lakh for the formation of a residential layout and for its approval from a competent authority in Chitradurga.

Manjunath charged the said MLA with demanding Rs 30 lakh as 'advance commission.' The Association’s charges come at a time when the Congress mounted an attack on the BJP accusing it of running an alleged 40 per cent commission government.

The Congress has been referring to an incident wherein a contractor committed suicide accusing the then Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister K S Eshwarappa of demanding 40 per cent commission.

The BJP, however, dismissed the allegations by saying there were no credible evidences to act on its partymen.