Bengaluru Metropolitan Task Force (BMTF) chief, R. P. Sharma, who tried to shake things up in the corporation and weed out the inefficient and corrupt, has been given the marching orders. With his move to book cases against several BBMP employees inviting a huge backlash, leaving the city with uncleared garbage for three days, the government did what came easy to it. It transferred the officer Tuesday afternoon.
It didn’t stop there, however. Striking the BMTF another blow, it downgraded its post of Assistant Director General of Police (ADGP) to Inspector General of Police (IGP), effectively withdrawing the prosecuting powers of the BMTF chief. Mr Sharma , who has been transferred without any posting, is clearly paying the price for filing criminal cases against 128 officials and chargesheeting some of them in response to an outpouring of public complaints against poor garbage clearance and violations of building bylaws in the city.
Cornered BBMP officials hit back, staging a dharna before the BBMP head office and demanding that Mr Sharma's wings be clipped. They also wanted the cases filed against them to be withdrawn. The government , communicating through the mayor, urged the employees to withdraw their protest and promised to come to their rescue. It appears to have kept its word as Mr Sharma has now been replaced by Dr. P. Ravindranath who was IGP, excise enforcement. The new chief, who will have to work under section 492(3) of the Karnataka Municipal Corporation (KMC) Act , will not be empowered to prosecute anyone without the permission of the BBMP commissioner and the authority extended by an official order, according to sources. Despite several attempts to speak to Home minister R. Ashok, he chose not to come on line, while CM Jagadish Shettar and Law and Parliamentary Affairs minister Suresh Kumar were unavailable for comments.