Cash, the only tongue spoken in corridors of Guntur civic body

Guntur: A Guntur Municipal Corporation ( GMC ) bill collector getting trapped in ACB net has once again brought the corruption set deep into the civic body to light. Sources say that several senior officials in revenue, planning and health wings have reportedly been extending tacit support to the corrupt staffers in return of decent ‘shares’.

Even raids by ACB and vigilance and enforcement wings have not instilled any fear in the corrupt officials.

With the commissioners unable to crack the whip against errant staffers due to political pressure, citizens are forced to pay huge sums to get any work done by the civic body. Bill collector Veerraju, who was caught by ACB on Monday, for instance, had demanded a bribe from a house owner for splitting the house tax. The owner’s son is a cop and even that did not deter Veerraju. Interestingly, Veerraju, originally a worker in the sanitation wing, himself got shifted to the ‘lucrative’ revenue department reportedly by paying huge bribes.

Several such field staffers are virtually dictating terms to senior officials in different wings of GMC. A tap inspector has been commanding nearly 12 cash rich divisions for 15 years without facing transfer. No senior official has tried to shift him to other location in the city thanks to his preparedness to meet their needs. Several AEs and DEs return to GMC after briefly working in other civic bodies because of the money that can be made in GMC.

Sources say that work inspectors in engineering wing have also been also working without transfer for decades together. Similar is the case of chainmen and building inspectors in town planning department.

The GMC administration has virtually been in chaos for 18 months in spite of being headed by an IAS officer.