IT city is making headlines for the wrong reasons time and again – from mounting garbage, frothing lakes, land mafia, notorious traffic to corruption. But with the Assembly polls just round the corner, the ruling Congress and the BJP are at loggerheads, heaping charges of “misgovernance” and “corruption” on each other.
A day after releasing a Bengaluru-specific "chargesheet" listing the "failures" of the Congress government, the BJP on Friday launched its 14-day-long "Save Bengaluru" campaign, which hopes to cover all 28 Assembly constituencies in the city.
Interestingly, even as the saffron party set out on a massive rally through the main thoroughfares of the city, the Congress too staged a protest rally against the BJP.
An embarrassed Congress went all out to list the “failures” of the BJP during its tenure. State Congress working president Dinesh Gundu Rao and Bengaluru Development minister K.J. George convened a press meet to launch a counter attack on the BJP.
"How can BJP release a chargesheet against us when they are guilty of corruption? When BJP was in power, they have passed tenders in midnight and have also set the BBMP office on fire to burn the files. The UPA government had given funds for Bengaluru's development under the JNNURM. But during the BJP rule they had mortgaged the BBMP properties including the Utility building. Have they implemented a single pro-people scheme like Indira canteen? The booklet of allegations is a book of lies," charged Rao.
George dubbed the “chargesheet” as baseless. Upset with the BJP labeling him as a "real estate don" who “manipulated” the Bangalore Master Plan 2031 to pave way for rampant land use conversion, George said, “BJP is making baseless allegations out of frustration as they have realised during the recent statewide tour (Parivarthana Yatra) that their party will not win even 55 seats in the upcoming polls. The chargesheet is a bundle of lies and is unfit to be thrown into a waste basket too,” said George, adding that even a Modi or Amit Shah could not help BJP win Kanataka.
The BJP had accused the Siddaramaiah government of using the masterplan to cut down the total forested area in the city by 79 per cent – from the current 27.53 sq km to 5.7 sq km.
A twitter war that broke out gave enough reason for the people of Bengaluru to be worried about as both parties listed down each other's “scams”. The Congress claimed that it was reclaiming all encroached lands, but BJP leaders like R. Ashok (former home minister), Katta Subramanya Naidu, and Yeddurappa were infamous for land grabbing and denotification. “The probe into land grabbing case, where Ashok is accused of usurping 2000 acres, is still on. Katta was jailed over KIADB land scam, like his colleague Krishnaiah Setty. Yeddyurappa too is facing land denotification cases,” alleged Rao.
The BJP's social media team was quick to counter the charge. “Has the Congress forgotten the land grabbing cases involving Congress leaders. Dinesh Gundu Rao grabbing 47-acre land in Yelahanka worth Rs 550 crore, Krishna Byregowda's 117 acres in Yelahanka worth Rs 1800 crore and CM's Arkavathy layout scam of 541 acres. This is like the pot calling the kettle black,” tweeted the state BJP.
An unrelenting Congress claimed that the city under their rule was now being called “dynamic city, top start-up city, best city for investment and a global city. But the same city had earned the garbage city tag during the BJP rule.”
The BJP hit back saying the city was always dynamic but the Congress had reduced it to “No. 6 in the world for worst traffic congestion, No. 2 in crimes” and was responsible for big companies like Amazon and Microsoft exiting the city. The Congress has taken the city from its 7th spot in 2015 to 210th in 2017 in the Swachch Bharat ranking. “Even garbage was not spared and they made money. The garbage scam is worth Rs 600 crore. CM should pen a book titled 1001 ways to loot public money,” alleged BJP.