Demanding and accepting cigarettes from junior staff proved costly for a traffic controller of BMTC as the Managing Director G. Sathyavathi on Wednesday ordered suspension of Gurumurthy attached to unit 33 on the charges of corruption until further orders.
The incident came to light during the course of investigations into the rampant corrupt practices among supervisory officials, and harassment meted out to the ground level staff who refused to comply to their demands.
Gurumurthy was in charge of assigning routes to the conductors and drivers, apart from overtime and leaves. The allegation was that he would demand cigarettes and snacks from the junior staff for an official favour, and those who did not comply or follow his instructions would allegedly get a bad deal.
C. K. Ramya, assistant security and vigilance officer, who visited the depot came to know about this and probed it before submitting a report to the MD Ms. Sathyavathi, for further action. Based on the report, Ms. Sathyavathi suspended Gurumurthy on the charges of corrupt practices, which is against the service rules. Continuing him in the same position despite this would encourage him to do more and sends a wrong signal, she said in the order.
It may be recalled that the officials cracked the whip on the staff of Depot 20 in Banashankari and suspended around 10 staff members who were found indulging in bitcoin trading. The staff was not only trading in bitcoin online but also encouraging other staff to enrol and earn huge margin of profit. This amounts to office of profit, BMTC held.
The same vigilance cell had cracked a forgery case which led to the arrest of a former chief traffic manager. He and six others had forged signatures of senior officers and awarded tenders to undeserving applicants causing financial loss to the tune of ₹17 crore to the corporation.
