Five govt officials suspended on corruption charges

Bangalore, Oct 23 (UNI) The Karnataka government suspended five senior engineers of the Water Resources Department, who were indicted for alleged misappropriation of funds to the tune of over Rs 26 crore.

According to a release here today, they were placed under suspension based on the inquiry report of the Vigilance Officer of the Krishna Bhagya Jala Nigama Limited (KBJNL), which have indicted six officials for ''misappropriation'' of funds meant for execution of works under KBJNL.

The officials were facing charges of making an additional payment of Rs 26 crore to contractors for executing 116 projects under the Upper Krishna Project in Gulbarga and Raichur districts, which comes under KBJNL, reportedly without getting any approval from the authorities concerned.

The Vigilance authorities had recommended the state government to take punitive action against the officials for causing revenue loss to state exchequer and for sanctioning payment for ''fictitious'' projects.

Among the six engineers, one official had already been suspended from service on charges of corruption in a separate case, the release added.

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