Thiruvananthapuram Dec 5 With just four days left for the local body polls, the BJP on Friday levelled serious allegations of large-scale corruption in the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation’s kitchen bin distribution project, accusing the ruling CPI(M)-led administration of manipulating figures, violating tender norms, and derailing subsequent investigations.
According to BJP leaders, the civic body distributed no more than 5,000 kitchen bins, though official records later claimed that 60,000 bins had been supplied under the project.
This “massive inflation of numbers,” they alleged, indicates corruption running into several crores.
“The discrepancy is too large to be a clerical error. It is a deliberate act designed to siphon off public funds,” leaders asserted.
The BJP also targeted the awarding of the project tender to a Coimbatore-based company.
The party alleged that the firm bagged the contract by bypassing eligibility norms, quality assessments, and financial criteria.
“Every guideline was ignored to favour a single company. This is a textbook case of tender manipulation,” the BJP charged.
The party further alleged that the Corporation engineered a cover-up by entrusting the internal probe to officials who themselves were linked to the irregularities.
As a result, they claimed, even the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau’s inquiry was led astray, preventing a fair and transparent investigation.
“The inquiry was compromised from the very beginning,” the BJP leaders said.
Escalating their attack, the BJP also accused senior CPI(M) leaders of accepting crores of rupees in kickbacks through road construction contracts in the city.
They alleged that several works were shown as completed only on paper, while contractors and political middlemen shared the proceeds.
“This is not an isolated incident. It is part of a larger pattern of corruption in the Corporation,” they claimed.
The party leadership, including the state BJP president Rajeev Chandrasekhar, warned that they would soon release documentary evidence, including financial records and internal communications, to substantiate their charges.
“The people of Thiruvananthapuram deserve to know the full extent of the scam. We will reveal everything in the coming days,” they said.
In the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, the BJP is the biggest opposition with 35 wards of the 100 wards, while the Congress-led UDF has just 10 seats, and the ruling CPM-led Left rules with 51 seats.
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