'BJP will win more than 120 out 198 seats but BBMP polls no referendum'
From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bangalore, Mar 26: With hardly 24 hours left for the prestigious BBMP polls, scheduled to commence on Sunday at 7 am, Karnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa and state BJP chief K S Eshwarappa took time off along with party’s national general secretary Ananth Kumar to hold a news conference on the prospects of the ruling party. The trio confidently claimed that the BJP will definitely win more than 120 out of the 198 seats but refrained from terming the election as a referendum.
"That question does not arise at all because the BBMP polls concern the state capital. The issues are entirely different. How can the outcome of BBMP polls become a referendum on the 21-month rule of the state government?,” the chief minister asked.
Yeddyurappa said the BJP was seeking votes based on the government’s performance during the last 21 months and not on empty promises on what the party would do if voted to power. ``Development and progress are the watchwords of this government and BJP. We are seeking votes for BJP for development and growth of the city,’’ he said pointing out that the BJP government had taken up series of developmental works and projects in almost every locality.
"I have declared that no new slum will be allowed to come up in the city and I promise to keep my word,’’ he said asserting that all the existing slums will be developed and improved. The slum dwellers will be provided with civic amenities on a par with other citizens and record of rights will be given to them for their dwelling units. Steps would be taken to regularise all encroachments by implementing the Akrama-Sakrama legislation.
The chief minister said the government was firm in its commitment to flagging off the first Metro Train by the end of December this year and complete the remaining stretches of the Namma Metro project by 2011-12 as promised. ``We will stick to the deadline, come what may,” he declared.
The government was also keen to start the mono rail system in the uncovered parts of Bangalore and also to operate local trains in the four directions of the city on the Mumbai pattern, he said pointing out that the state government would invest Rs 500 crore this year itself to enable the Railways to commence work from April itself.
Broadgauge rail lines and train services were presently available in different directions towards Tumkur, Whitefield, Doddaballapur etc around the city. It should be possible to run electric trains in radial routes by doubling the existing broadguage lines with introduction of electrification and automatic signaling, explained Ananth Kumar, who had served as civil aviation minister in the NDA regime.
The 100-MW diesel power generation plant at Yelahanka is being expanded to 700 MW. The gas-based 1400 MW power generating plant is being set up in Bidadi dedicated to meet the power requirements of the city and the tendering process will commence from next month itself, he said promising that the Bangalore Development Authority is taking steps to build multi-storeyed car parks at 40 different places around the city. The first phase of Cauvery drinking water scheme stage one is being implemented at a cost of Rs 600 crore to meet the growing drinking water needs of the city.
The chief minister said there was no need to worry about the resources as the government was planning to raise Rs 25,000 crore through public auction of all the recovered property of encroached government lands. The public auction system will commence from next month, he said.
Yeddyurappa attacked former prime minister and JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda and his sons H D Revanna and H D Kumaraswamy for carrying with their single-point campaign against the Bangalore-Mysore infrastructure corridor project and said the government was keen to ensure that the project was completed as per the court directions and the original framework agreement.
"I am firm on convening a meeting of all floor leaders in both houses of state legislature and invite all the former chief ministers to discuss the BMIC issue and seek their suggestions or views on completing the project. I will even go to Delhi and hold discussions with former chief ministers S M Krishna, Veerappa Moily and even Dharam Singh if they do not have the time to attend the meeting. We want to bring a finality to the issue,” he said reacting to Revanna’s statement that JD(S) will not take part in the meeting.
Eshwarappa pointed out that the state government’s grant to Bangalore city corporation was Rs 37 crore in 2003-04 and went up by a few hundreds of crores of rupees and touched Rs 800 crore until the BJP government headed by Yeddyurappa came into being. The Yeddyurappa-led BJP regime released a whopping Rs 2,500 crore last year and enhanced it to a record Rs 3,500 crore this year. ``We want to ensure the development of Bangalore as a model city corporation for the entire country in keeping with its status as India’s knowledge capital,” he said.
BJP national general secretary Ananth Kumar said the Yeddyurappa regime was keen on having a Bangalore Regional Governance Act on the pattern of similar legislations for other metro cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkatta instead of the present system of running the BBMP under the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act 1976.
"The central focus of the proposed legislation will be to make the BBMP citizen centric rather than being city administration centric,” he said pointing out that setting up ward committees and empowering them to prepare five-year other key features.