Drain mess: Govt pins six retired, 14 serving officers

BENGALURU: The Karnataka government has identified 20 officers who, prima facie, were found responsible for permitting construction of buildings on stormwater drains in Bengaluru. Six of them have retired while the rest are still in service.

Municipal authorities are on a demolition drive since Saturday last, razing at least 100 buildings that had allegedly encroached stormwater drains following last month's heavy rainfall that flooded several parts of the city.

Names of the retired officers are as follows: HC Kari Gowda, town planner member, BDA; GJ Nayak, town planner member, BDA; D Satyanarayana, engineer member, BDA; MN Shankar Bhat, law officer, BDA; Chowdegowda, additional director, BBMP; K Veerendranath, additional director, BBMP.

Officers still in service: Guruprasad, assistant engineer, BBMP; Shashidhar, assistant director of town planning, BBMP; BT Mohan Krishna; deputy director of town planning, BBMP; Govindaraju, joint director of town planning - South, BBMP; Mohammad Abdulla Azeem, assistant executive engineer, BBMP; Gurumurthy, assistant executive engineer, BBMP; Vijaykumar D Patil, assistant director of town planning, BBMP; DS Sarvotthamaraju, assistant director of town planning, BBMP; S Mruthyunjaya, superintending engineer, BBMP; T Nataraj, joint director of town planning - South, BBMP; Liakath, assistant executive engineer, BBMP; Sunitha, assistant engineer, BBMP; Gangappa, assistant executive engineer, BBMP; Munikrishna, chief engineer, BBMP.

The Urban Development Department has recommended suspension of those in service. Further, it issued orders to initiate criminal action against four retired BDA officials who sanctioned plans for buildings in BTM Layout, Silk Board junction and surrounding areas - HC Kari Gowda, GJ Nayak, D Satyanarayana and MN Shankar Bhat.