With the Karnataka High Court directing the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to take up the works specified in the Rs. 3,400-crore “midnight tenders”, the question that Opposition leaders are asking is where will the funds come from?
Opposition Leader in the BBMP Council M. Nagaraj said the BBMP was already neck-deep in debt. “How will the civic authority take up these works? Will the State Government give funds? The BBMP already has loans totalling Rs. 3,000 crore and pending bills of around Rs. 4,000 crore. Will it borrow more to take up these works?” he said. Up to March 1, the total revenue of the BBMP was just around Rs. 1,400 crore. “The BJP presented a very ambitious budget for 2010-11,” he said.
Echoing this, Janata Dal (Secular) Floor Leader Padmanabha Reddy said that the works specified in the “midnight tenders” were not reflected in the BBMP budget.
‘Yet to be done'
“The works mentioned in the budget are yet to be implemented and the BJP is gearing itself for the next budget…
“The works taken up when H.D. Kumaraswamy was the Chief Minister have still not been completed. All these projects will remain on paper for a long time,” he added.
Mayor happy
Mayor S.K. Nataraj welcomed the court's judgment. He said the BBMP had already availed itself of loans for these projects as they were mentioned in the previous year's budget (2009-10). “The only thing remaining now is to accord approval for the projects. They will be tabled in Council after approval in the respective Standing Committees,” he added.
