Bengaluru: It was sweet victory for thousands of Bengalureans, who had said a categorical "No" to the controversial steel flyover planned between Basaveshwara Circle and Hebbal to ease traffic to the international airport, when the state government announced on Thursday that it was dropping the project.
The announcement was made by Bengaluru Development Minister, K.J. George after a meeting with the Mayor and city legislators to discuss a possible water crisis hitting the city. Going by party sources, the decision to drop the steel flyover, was taken on Wednesday evening as the Congress leadership in Delhi was worried about the fallout of the Govindaraju diary entries on alleged pay-offs made by the state Congress and the charges of kickbacks received for the steel bridge. It reportedly wanted the CM to "clean up" things and shelve the flyover project.
To the surprise of many, the meeting called to discuss the anticipated water crisis in the city, began with Congress MLAs, S T Somashekhar and Munirathna bringing up the issue of the steel bridge and arguing it should be dropped because of the wild allegations surrounding it. Other Congress leaders present like Byrati Suresh and Krishna Byre Gowda, backed the project and accused the BJP of trying to stall the city's development. The BJP leaders present refused to comment with Mr Aravind Limbavali claiming the BJP had never opposed the project.But after an argument with Mr George, he insisted the government could not withdraw after receiving kickbacks.
Dismissing the allegation, Mr George accused MP, Rajeev Chandrashekhar of conspiring with BJP, NGOs and the media to stall the city's development, “Mr Chandrashekhar started it and the BJP president started making wild allegations. First he said Rs 400 crore was paid and later that kickbacks were revealed during IT raids on Govindaraju's house. Now he is talking of diary entries and money given to the CM himself.''
We shelved the flyover project respecting public sentiment: Dr G Parameshwar
The state government decision to shelve the controversial steel flyover project was demonstration of respect to people's sentiments and not owing to pressure from Opposition parties, home minister Dr G Parameshwar said on Thursday.
He told the media that a section of Bengalureans were opposed to the project from the beginning.
The government, taking everything into account such opposition, took a decision to drop the project "When people did not want it, we also don't want it. We have respect for people's opinion", he added.
On the demand of BJP leaders for a CBI probe into alleged kickbacks received by Congress leaders for approving the project, Dr Parameshwar said it would not be possible to refer the issue to the central investigating agency merely because BJP leaders are demanding one.
The government did not drop it as these leaders protested against an alleged mention in a diary purportedly belonging to Congress MLC K Govindaraj about Rs 65 crore kickback. "According to me, the diary is fictitious and contents in it are mysterious," he added.
Meanwhile, Biocon Chief Kiran Mazumdar Shaw welcomed the government's decision to scrap the proposed steel flyover project. Shaw is also the member of Bengaluru Blue Print Action Group, a vision group formed by the state government to find solutions to resolve city's infrastructure and civic bottlenecks.
