Bengaluru: The Karnataka State Contractors’ Association on Monday January 16 said that ministers and BJP MLAs in power were harassing them to pay bribes.
The Association members released a purported conversation on WhatsApp and the audio of the conversation with the MLAs seeking money. They claim that three or four Ministers and at least 14 MLAs were involved in the alleged extortion.
The Association Working President Manjunath accused an MLA of bribing contractors by arm-twisting an assistant executive engineer.
Speaking to mediapersons he said he paid money to the MLA directly and also through engineers. “ I have been giving the bribe to the BJP MLA in instalments since 2019,”
He claimed that he had spent Rs. 20 lakh on a hospital’s construction, Rs. 12.5 lakh on PWD work, Rs. 10 lakh during the first Covid wave, and Rs. 12 lakh during the second.
In addition to this, he paid Rs. 22 lakh for the formation of a residential layout and for a competent body in Chitradurga to approve it. Manjunath said that the same MLA demanded Rs. 30 lakh as advance commission.
The Association’s allegations come at a time when the Congress is attacking the BJP for allegedly running a government with a 40 per cent commission.
