Bengaluru: With only days to go before the civic body polls on Saturday, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who has pulled out all the stops, taking ownership of the campaign – and the results – made good on a longstanding demand of the people of Bengaluru – the appointment of a minister who will take charge of running this fast growing city of nearly 8.5 million people.
Taking a brief respite from campaigning, he said on Tuesday, while shrugging off criticism that he had put Bengaluru on ice for two years, "No matter what happens in the BBMP polls, a minister will be appointed to look after the city.”
He said a cabinet expansion as well as a reshuffle was on the cards. “And I will give the city development portfolio to one minister,” he said, adding that his first task after taking control of the BBMP would be to solve the garbage crisis, his second would be to ease traffic gridlock across the city, which would see him fast track the building of the crucial north-south and east-west corridor projects as well as flyovers on a public-private partnership model.
Sipping green tea and nibbling on pakoras, before heading out to the second leg of the day's campaign, he said, responding to a question on whether the results would have a bearing on development initiatives: “The process of development will not stop.”
“There is a groundswell of support in favour of the Congress party”, he insisted. “We will get a simple majority,” he said. He showered praise on Commissioner and BBMP administrator, T.M. Vijay Bhaskar and G. Kumar Naik for making genuine efforts to bring the corporation back on track. "When BJP was in power, the revenue collection for the whole year was around Rs 1,300 crore. After we posted an administrator and a commissioner, they collected over Rs 1,400 crore revenue in just four months," he said.
Asked if the government would go ahead with plans to trifurcate the civic body if the party won the BBMP polls, he said, “We are committed to it,” adding that he would still have to consult the cabinet.
