Congress's Siddaramaiah today took the corruption allegations against the state's BJP government to the next level, slamming it over a proposed pledge to end the alleged bribery culture in government offices. The Basavaraj Bommai government has received a proposal from a citizens' group that suggests that all government officials hang a board in their rooms to vouch for their honesty.
The text on the board, suggested the Citizen Enquiry Council, should read, "No one needs to pay me a bribe. I will not be a corrupt officer", the Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister has written in a letter.
Chief Minister Bommai, Mr Siddaramaiah said in a series of tweets, should nail such a board in front of his house first.
"As per the reports, the @BJP4Karnataka govt will now ask every govt office to put the board which says, "No one needs to pay me a bribe. I will not be a corrupt officer". Mr @BSBommai, first put the board in front of your ministers' & your house," read one of his tweets.
The government, he said, should not shift the blame on bureaucrats and officers since the "contractors have pointed towards the ministers & not the officers".
Don't try to shift the blame on the bureaucrats & officers. The contractors have pointed towards the ministers & not the officers.
— Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) September 26, 2022
Initiate a judicial investigation on the 40% corruption allegation on the ministers, before staging the drama of putting the anti-graft boards.
Mr @BSBommai,
— Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) September 26, 2022
Instead of putting up anti-graft boards in front of the govt offices, make it mandatory to install CCTVs in the offices. Take action against the corrupt officers immediately when there are complaints from the aggrieved citizens.#40PercentSarkara
The former Chief Minister had warned that the party will step up its anti-corruption campaign against the BJP after several Congress leaders were detained last week in connection to the PayCM poster campaign. The state police had also arrested BR Naidu, the former chief of Karnataka Congress' social media team.
On a defiant note, Mr Siddaramaiah had said there will be no let-up in the campaign. "The campaign will continue across the state," he told reporters.
Posters resembling the design of e-wallet Paytm, and carrying the image of Mr Bommai on the QR code with the message "40% accepted here" had surfaced across Bengaluru last week.
The campaign started after the state's contractors' body had alleged that they had to pay 40 per cent of the project cost as bribes to secure contracts.
Calling the campaign an "evil design" Chief Minister Bommai had said, "They have given no evidence".
"It is all politically motivated. I have challenged them to produce proof. During their (Congress) tenure, there were many scams that should be looked into," he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
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