Siddaramaiah sets out to woo Bengaluru

Bengaluru: Keeping an eye on the coming Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) elections, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has announced a special grant of Rs1,000 crore to the Palike to take up new works in the city. The Supreme Court has directed that the polls be held in three months.

Talking to media persons after a meeting with senior officials of BBMP and ministers from Bengaluru here on Friday, the CM said the new works would be executed by Department of Public Works and not through the BBMP engineering department. Besides, the special grant should be utilised only on new works and not on ongoing or old works.

Holding the previous BJP-led elected body responsible for presenting an ‘unrealistic’ budget, Mr Siddaramaiah claimed that this had pushed the civic body to financial constraints.

To bring back the BBMP back on track, Mr T.M. Vijaybhaskar, the palike administrator was trying his best. The tax collection had improved a lot after the new administrator took over the mantle of BBMP administrator.

“I have asked Mr Vijaybhaskar to identify tax evading BBMP properties and take steps in this regard. All illegal hoardings across the city will be removed as early as possible”.

Mincing no words, the CM said directions had been given to BBMP officials to make all roads pot-holes free before the end of the current month and also to clean storm water drains as they get clogged during the rainy season causing misery to citizens.

The City should be made free from debris. Officials, who show laxity in discharging their duty would be suspended on the spot. A few more processing units would be established in the next two months in places where the garbage menace was reported.