BJP’s padayatra blitz for Bengaluru from today

BENGALURU:Starting March 2, the Bharatiya Janata Party will start a ‘Save Bengaluru’ campaign where party workers and leaders will go to every Assembly constituency in the state capital to highlight how the city was damaged by the Siddaramaiah regime. During the 14-day campaign, BJP leaders, including city MLAs, MPs and MLCs along with Union ministers and other national leaders, will cover two Assembly constituencies a day, covering all 28 Assembly constituencies in the next fortnight.

On Thursday, Union Minister of Human Resource Development (MHRD) Prakash Javadekar released a ‘chargesheet’ against the Congress government in Karnataka. Referring to the ‘chargesheet’, Javadekar said Bengaluru was a decent city, which has now been converted into a ‘crime city’, and the garden city has been turned into a garbage city. He said ‘goonda raj’ prevails in the city. During Siddaramaiah’s government, chain snatching, rape, attacks on policemen and government servants and other crimes have increased. “This city was once safe for women, now it is not,” he added.  

Pointing to the Congress over the recent incident involving its functionaires Mohammed Nalapad who was involved in a cafe brawl, and Narayanaswamy who allegedly threatened a BBMP officer at K R Puram, Javadekar said this is nothing but arrogance of power. “There is scam everywhere - from garbage disposal to lake rejuvenation,’’ he said.

He also said that the city had so many water bodies which are now filled with sewage from apartment complexes. The smart city is struggling to cope with traffic snarls and good roads are now filled with potholes. All these happened during the Congress regime, he added. “The Union government has given funds. The state government too claims to spend more money on roads and other projects. But, in reality, people are suffering. Where did the money go? Through the campaign in Bengaluru we are urging people to question this,’’ he said.Former deputy CM R Ashok said through the campaign, they will go to every single ward in BBMP limits.

‘They killed lakes, we are reviving them’
When asked how a BJP government will revive polluted city lakes, Javadekar said when he was Environment Minister, he had visited Bellandur. “It is we who made the rule of installing sewage treatment plants for apartments with minimum 50 flats. We will revive lakes that were damaged and killed by the Congress,’’ he added.