BENGALURU: Ruckus broke out between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress legislators in the Assembly over the alleged Maharishi Valmiki Corporation Board scam and the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) site allotment scam involving Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s wife Parvathi.
“The master of corruption and scam is BJP MLA and former minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan. You have no moral right to ask”, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar was heard saying. To this, BJP MLA V Sunil Kumar said, “You (Congress government) are the father of all scams and corruption. You people looted the money of Dalits and you are blaming us”.
Speaking to reporters, Karnataka BJP president B Y Vijayendra said that money meant for the development of the Valmiki community has been exploited and used for Lok Sabha elections. “The money meant for the upliftment of Dalits has been diverted to their guarantees. At the same time, money meant for the development of the Valmiki community has been exploited, looted, and used for the Lok Sabha elections…,” Vijayendra said.
The ruckus broke out a day after Karnataka BJP leaders staged a protest march to the Vidhana Soudha alleging deep-rooted corruption. The scam pertains to the alleged illegal transfer of funds from the Maharshi Valmiki ST Development Corporation, which is tasked with implementing welfare programmes for scheduled tribe members.
Former Tribal Affairs and Sports Minister B Nagendra is currently in the custody of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) till July 18 after the central agency arrested him in connection with the alleged scam. The arrest came after the agency raided locations allegedly linked to Nagendra and Corporation MD Basanagouda Daddal. On July 13, a Bengaluru court sent B Nagendra to ED till July 18.
The alleged corruption case of Maharishi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation came to light after an official of the corporation died by suicide and left a note containing an allegation of multi-crore corruption in the corporation. (ANI)