Frontier India Current Affairs

Written on May 3, 2008 – 5:09 pm | by FICA |

BJP President LK Advani today urged people of karnataka to give BJP a chance. His appeal to the voters of Karnataka is straight and simple “You have so far given the Congress party a chance – indeed, many a chance. You have given various formations of the Janata Dal a chance. This time, give the BJP a chance to set things right in Bangalore and the rest of Karnataka.”

The election in 2004 produced a hung assembly. He blamed Congress and JD(S) for “once again working on the scenario of a hung assembly so that they can replay the unscrupulous game they played after 2004, just to keep the BJP out of power.”

Advani also spoke about the bad infrastructure in Karnataka. He said “I am addressing this press conference in Bangalore. I have been visiting Bangalore for a long time and have always been charmed by its many attractions. Indeed, even in my childhood in Sindh, I used to hear — and I have mentioned this in my autobiography — that the two cleanest and most beautiful cities in the undivided India of those days were Karachi and Bangalore.

Of course, in the past 10-15 years, I have come to admire Bangalore (now Bengaluru) for another reason : for its spectacular achievements in information technology. Sadly, this admiration is now mixed with deep concern over the city’s present and future because of the urban chaos that I see almost everywhere. It seems that those who ruled Karnataka had no vision, no masterplan and no political will to create urban infrastructure and civic facilities commensurate with the needs of its rapidly growing population.

Bad roads, severe traffic jams, poor drinking water supply and sanitation in the newly populated areas of the city, expanding slums, artificially hiked land-prices that have given birth to land mafia, skyrocketing house-rents that make housing unaffordable for the poor and middle-classes, grossly inadequate facilities for education and healthcare, rising crime — who is responsible for all this mess?

A striking example of poor urban planning is the construction of a new airport without proper road connectivity. All this is symptomatic of miscarriage of good governance by the party that has ruled Karnataka for the longest period since its formation.

What is true about Bangalore is equally true about other cities and towns in the state. The lack of commitment and a long-term developmental perspective on the part of the rulers has meant untold hardships for the poor and middle classes in a state that has immense and proven potential to be a driver of India’s prosperity.”