Pavani now blames some contractors

After making shock revelation about commissions being paid to elected representatives, Sircilla municipal chairperson Samala Pavani said she was  merely  highlighting the complaints of councilors aired during the Municipal budget meeting that took place o March 17.

According to some reports , the elected representatives of the local bodies feel that some contractors, especially those who are close to the ruling party,  are not paying them commissions due to their proximity to higher-ups in the government. 

Some contractors have blamed the MPTC, ZPTC, MPP and ward councilors  for stalling works by demanding their cut in commissions.

A contractor accused a local MPP of stopping the road construction works as he did not pay pay him commission for doing works in his area. It was , however, proved that the contractor himself stopped the work to accuse the MPP of corruption recently in Karimnagar mandal.

During her press conference,  Ms Pavani, who resigned from her chairperson post on Saturday, said only one contractor was doing all works in the civic body and neglecting the ward  councilors.

Though Ms Pavani referred to an unidentified Minister's clearance for taking commissions, she on Sunday claimed that she did not made such comments and her comments were distorted by graphics in the electronic media.

The reference to the minister was taken by some in the media as ahint at municipal administration minister K.T Rama Rao.

Reacting to this, senior Congress leader and defeated MLA K.K Mahender Reddy demanded the Minister for IT and Municipal Administration and Urban Development K.T Rama Rao to resign from the post by taking the moral responsibility for the chairperson’s comments.

Sircilla Municipal budget meeting was in camera meeting and media was not allowed to cover the event and later chairperson briefed to the media about budget proceedings in which they have passed Rs 116.29 core budget for the year 2018-19 the development in the Sircilla Municipality. 

It is estimated that the municipality will get revenue Rs 16 crore from taxes, Rs 100 crore from Government grants, schemes and loans.  

Taking 3% commissions a norm, says Sicilla civic chief

 Samala Pavani

Sircilla municipal chairperson Samala Pavani’s video that even ‘their minister’  told them that there was nothing wrong in taking commission up to 3 percent from the contractors went viral on March 17.  

Late in the night she sent in her resignation to commissioner. In the resignation letter, Ms Pavani said she was resigning on personal grounds and thanked minister   K.T Ramarao for his support. She also thanked the councilors for their support. 

   

Pavani said councilors were not happy though works worth hundreds of crores were on in the Sircilla municipality colonies and contractors were not giving them commissions.

She said, in a lighter vein, at a press conference that it was common to take 1 to 3 percent commission from the contractors as the “media persons knew pretty well”. She was referring drainage and other development works in the colonies in the Sircilla municipality.

However, she did not mention the name of the Minister but just said “our”. She alleged that some of the contractors said councilors were asking them to pay commissions for the works they had done in the colonies in the Sircilla Municipality. 

Giving the commission to the councilors was the “responsibility” of the contractors and they must follow it to compensate the expenditure incurred during the elections, she felt.

Accepting commission was not just happening in the Sircilla Municipality alone, she said and every one of them in the Telangana state was doing so and there was “nothing was new in it”.

Pavani said, her commissions were taken care of by her husband and she was concentrating only on development works and administration and added that she could not say who the contractors should pay to and the percentage.

She admitted that she was one among the many who took commissions from contractors.