Karnataka CM rains Rs 7,300 crore on city: A stitch in time?

Bengaluru: Hardly  a month after his last inspection, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah hit the road again on Tuesday to review the progress of city infrastructure projects and this time promised a whopping Rs 7,300 crore for its roads, drains, lakes, garbage disposal and supply of drinking water to the 110 newly added villages.

As much as Rs 800 crore has been set aside for remodelling the city’s storm water drains to prevent flooding during the monsoon. Taking  officials to task for the slow progress on  essential projects, Mr Siddaramaiah set fresh deadlines, and ordered engineers to make Mysore road free for traffic by July- end, and also complete long pending flyovers and underpasses.

BDA deputy commissioner (land acquisition), Vasant Kumar came in for some drubbing over delay in land acquisition holding up the flyovers at Hennur and Jalahalli  and was given  a month to rectify matters.

The Chief Minister told reporters later that the distance between SRS junction on Tumakuru road and TVS junction had been reduced by about nine kilometers thanks to a  new road built on  two acres acquired from the  KPTCL and the annual flooding of the Gali Anjaneya temple and its surrounding areas had been arrested by increasing the height of  the drain running nearby.

“This will help the rain water drain off instead of flooding the area,” he explained, adding that he had given instructions for the drain work near Kavika  to be completed by the end of July.    

Didn’t ask for resignations: Siddaramaiah
Spiking reports that he would seek resignation letters of all ministers ahead of a reshuffle of his ministry, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said on Tuesday that he had not even thought of trying out the “Kamaraj plan.”

“Let us cross the bridge when we get there. I have convened a meeting of council of ministers as well as one of the cabinet ministers. There are several issues which need to be discussed. Once we discuss them, we will keep the media informed,” he told reporters here.  

On Monday, the Chief Minister’s camp circulated information that the leader would effect a cabinet reshuffle, followed by details like resignations of all ministers would be sought. A day later, sources said he had no plans to rejig his ministry.