A decision on taking up frozen works amounting to Rs. 522 crore would be taken soon, said city in-charge and Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy.
He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an event organised to inaugurate a mural of former Mayor and president of Kannada Sahitya Parishat G. Narayana at Bugle Rock in Basavanagudi here on Wednesday.
The civil works were frozen by former Commissioner Siddaiah following a report from the Technical Vigilance Cell under Commissioner (TVCC). The TVCC report had deemed many of the works unnecessary.
Mr. Reddy said there was pressure from MLAs and councillors to resume the projects. He said TVCC officials and the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike’s (BBMP) engineer-in-chief had been directed to submit a report by December 6.
Mr. Reddy said of the Rs. 522 crore, work on projects amounting to Rs. 224 crore had begun. Tenders had been floated for works amounting to Rs. 70 crore. The remaining projects had been sanctioned and given work codes, while tenders had not yet been floated.
“The Mayor, BBMP Commissioner and I will take a call on the whether to resume the projects after going through the report,” he said.
Earlier, after inaugurating the murals, Mr. Reddy said G. Narayana was a champion of Kannada literature and seasoned politician.
He said when Mr. Narayana and the former Mayor V.S. Krishna Iyer were councilors, the people would fund their election expenses. “They were honest politicians and worked for the people. Those days, their election expense did not cross Rs. 2,000. Even when I was a councillor in 1983, my election expense was around Rs. 15,000. People would fund our expenses and extract work from us.”
Lamenting that politics had changed, Mr. Reddy said citizens must prevent politicians from spending during elections. “Do not elect them if they do not work for the people,” he said.
Ravi Subramanya, Basavanagudi MLA, said busts of Mr. Krishna Iyer, Mr. Narayana and T.R. Shamanna would be installed in Basavanagudi constituency. Mayor B.S. Sathyanarayana, the former Mayor D. Venkatesh Murthy and ruling party leader Ashwathnarayan Gowda were present.
