Bengaluru: Denying that he had received kickbacks for the controversial steel flyover planned for the city as alleged, Bengaluru Development Minister, K. J. George declared on Friday that he would not stay in office even for a minute if the charge was proved.
“Leaders of opposition parties are making baseless allegations against me. Have they forgotten that the steel flyover was first proposed by the BJP government when it was in power? The Congress government is simply implementing the proposal made by its predecessor," the minister said.
Inaugurating an event to serve hot meals to pourakarmikas in the BBMP west zone, he challenged the opposition parties to prove their allegation against him. “Even after we cleared doubts over the steel flyover’s cost escalation and its other features, some people approached the National Green Tribunal (NGT), which has stayed it," he regretted.
Accusing the previous BJP regime of leaving the BBMP bankrupt, the minister said it had presented a budget of Rs 10,000 crore for the civic agency when its revenue was a mere Rs 3,000 crore. “Due to this deficit budget, contractors’ bills of over Rs 3,600 crore were not settled and had to be kept pending,” he recalled.
Revealing that an inquiry had been ordered into the misuse of funds in the BBMP during the BJP regime , Mr George said money was spent at the time without vision and this had left the BBMP in such dire straits that it had to mortgage its prime properties.
