A 3-D view of the big Fight Jayashree Nandi , A T Subrahmanya, Mar 23, 2010,

This is one question every Bangalorean asks the big three political parties which are already busy promising the moon. Why should one vote for their party in the upcoming BBMP elections? TOI asked the same question to representatives of the three parties — BJP, Cong, JD(S) — at an interactive meeting at the TOI office on Monday, and they promptly announced that good urban infrastructure was developed in the past and would be developed in future. Reason enough?

BJP
Transport and Bangalore in-charge minister R Ashoka

“In the past 20 months that we have been in power, we have developed good roads, provided streetlights and other basic amenities which the other parties have not done in the past 20 years. Earlier, nobody had bothered about lakes, but we are planning to develop 160 lakes. This year, we have rejuvenated nearly 40 lakes at the cost of Rs 300 crore, and next year, we will develop another 40 lakes at the cost of another Rs 300 crore.

Our party has a vision for the overall development of Bangalore, with complete development of water supply, sanitation and parks. We will also try to reduce traffic congestion, which has been a legacy of the previous Congress government. We have also implemented the SAS system for property tax collection, instead of CVS, and have collected Rs 1,000 crore as tax, which is unprecedented. We will also implement the Akrama-Sakrama scheme.

We will also amend the Bangalore Act, like several other cities in India have their Acts. We are also developing signal-free corridors on the ring road, from Silk Board to Hebbal, and Whitefield to Hebbal. We have our commitment and vision to develop Bangalore into a world-class city.’

CONGRESS

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president
RV Deshpande
“We are for a clean, green Bangalore and communal harmony. Making Bangalore one among the top 20 cities in the world and an investor-friendly city will be top priority for our party. Before S M Krishna’s tenure, Karnataka used to be only a South Indian state with Bangalore as its capital. Now, people know Bangalore as one of the leading cities of the country. The Congress was responsible for making Bangalore a large employment hub, for developing 27 flyovers, for making it the IT capital, initiating the BIAL and Namma Metro project. Bangalore was a clean, green, livable city during the S M Krishna government. There were huge tree plantation drives, now Bangalore has become just the opposite. We are not against Bangalore’s development. We request people to vote first. If they vote for Congress, they will be investing in the future of Bangalore.’’

JD(S) Party president and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy

“The ring road foundation was laid when Deve Gowda was chief minister and it was also during the same regime that the British High Commissioner had visited Bangalore. Subsequently, the foundation was laid for IT parks, though later, Congress took the credit. Even the Metro project was conceived during Deve Gowda’s tenure.
When I was chief minister, there was no load-shedding at all, and we had even formed a cabinet sub-committee, chaired by me, to examine the power issue. We had also established power sub-stations at a cost of Rs 500 crore.

We are getting Rs 21,000 crore from JN-NURM funds and we need to utilise the funds properly to develop infrastructure, as we may not get such an amount again in future. At present, there is a lot of corruption and people are disgusted with governance. Though we have contributed a lot to the development of the city, we never took credit for it.”