BENGALURU: Having blown the lid off the Rs 2,000-crore BBMP advertising and hoardings scam, former assistant commissioner (advertising) K Mathai in a report to CM Siddaramaiah has said PWD principal secretary and former BBMP commissioner M Lakshminarayana is the man behind "mushrooming" of illegal hoardings in the city.Mathai had sent a letter to Siddaramaiah along with a 101-page report on April 19, a copy of which is with STOI, enumerating instances of alleged harassment he faced during his terms in different departments.The chief minister's secretariat said it had no idea about any such report. Mathai said that an adverse remark was recorded by his su perior and then BBMP commissioner Lakshminarayana against him in an annual confidential report (ACR) marked to the government.Mathai, in the chapter 'Adverse remarks in my ACR by M Lakshminarayana, IAS, on his name appeared in my report of Rs 2,000-cro re advert scam of BBMP' of his report, said: "Since I had to mention along with all documents about the truth that the above se nior officer was invol ved in the mushrooming of illegal advertisements throughout Bengaluru, the same officer has recently passed an adverse remarks in my ACR so that my promotion is delayed."Mathai wrote that "the said senior officer is learnt to be behind pressurising many other senior officers to victimize me." Responding to charges levelled against him, Lakshminarayana said: "Mathai never performed well in any of his departments. This was an opinion that not only I but several other department heads had. If I was the man behind the illegal hoardings in the city, then let him prove how many files I have signed sanctioning advertisement hoardings in the city. After all, he was the head of the advertising department then."Mathai in his report has asked the CM to set up an 'accountability committee' to keep track of partisan and vengeful acts by senior bureaucrats against deputies.

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