The Siddaramaiah government in Karnataka too has begun to face allegations of “commissions” for clearing pending bills of contractors. Earlier, former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai had faced similar charges of 40 per cent commission.

This was stoutly denied by Chief Minister S Siddaramaiah, who said that bribe-taking and bribe-giving were also a crime and that he never asked for any money from anyone to clear pending bills.

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The Chief Minister told media persons after a delegation of Karnataka State Contractors Association called on him on Monday seeking clearance of their pending bills, that he had never asked for any money from any contractor to clear pending bills. “The contractors should pay no commissions to anyone,” the CM reportedly said.

It may be recalled that the contractors’ association had made allegations of 40 per cent commission charges against the Basavaraj Bommai government, which got stuck to the BJP government, also because of a clever, crafty, and catchy campaign run by the Congress.

Now, the same association is insinuating that the issue of commission persists even today.

Its president, R Manjunath, said that the commission problem still persists. Officials are creating problems in releasing bills. It is more than what it was in the previous regime.

Incidentally, the association had written a complaint to Prime Minister Narendra Modi detailing their commission allegations. Now, it threatens that it will go to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi with its complaints.

To this, the Chief Minister said that they were free to go and lodge a complaint with anyone they felt like.

The pending bills pertain to the Basavara Bommai government time for works that were taken up by the contractors. For these, the government had made no allocations, Siddaramaiah said, but added that the government would see if it can consider and process the pending bills. But first, the government would have to carry out a financial situation study and then only take up the issue, possibly next month.

He is reported to have assured the delegation that his government would try and consider the clearance of bills.

The bills pertain to the works the previous government took up without allocating any funds, Siddarmaiah said.

On the allegation of “commission”, Siddaramaiah said that bribe-taking as well as bribe-giving was a crime, and he asserted that he had not demanded any money from anyone to clear the pending bills.