The ruling Congress and Opposition BJP legislators sparred over the controversial project on Thursday.
Holding the table mikes in their hands, members of the parties shouted against each other on the alleged kickbacks in the steel flyover project.
The meeting, which was called to discuss drinking water problems in the city at the conference hall of Vidhana Soudha, turned into a war of words between the legislators. The BJP legislators used the platform to level charges of corruption against the government.
S.T. Somashekar, C. Muniratna (MLAs) and Byrathi Suresh (MLC) (all Congress) and Aravind Limbavali and Y.A. Narayanaswamy (BJP MLAs) indulged in verbal duel, as Bengaluru Development Minister K.J. George, who chaired the meeting, denied the charges.
Mr. Suresh, Congress MLC, who urged the government not to succumb to Opposition pressure, kept demanding implementation of the project. Later, he walked out of the meeting opposing cancellation of the project.
Senior officials of BBMP and BDA and other agencies were mute spectators, as the Congress and BJP legislators levelled charges against each other on allocation of funds, drilling borewells and development works in various constituencies in the city.
The Congress MLAs alleged that the ruling BJP at the Centre stalled the lending by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for the Cauvery drinking water project that envisages water to 110 villages added to the BBMP.
Ministers Krishna Byre Gowda, Ramalinga Reddy, and M.R. Seetharam too lashed out at the BJP and said the Opposition has no alternative to the flyover and tackling traffic woes in the city. The BJP leaders hatched a political conspiracy to stall the project and bring a bad name to the government, the Ministers said.
“I am pained by corruption charges by the Opposition and BJP, and will cancel the steel flyover project. The project had become a pain for us as the media has been speaking daily about corruption in it,” Mr. George said.
However, the Congress legislators, including KPCC working president Dinesh Gundu Rao, put pressure on Mr. George to drop the project as it was tarnishing the image of the government. “The steel bridge is being portrayed as a monument of Congress corruption by Opposition parties. Why should we take the blame and implement the project?” Mr. Rao said. Congress MLAs N.A. Haris, Muniratna, and Somashekar too urged the government to drop the project.
