They may be three of the largest constituencies in the city, with access to a more than a sizeable chunk of funds, but R.R. Nagar, Yeshwantpur and K.R. Puram are still suffering from inadequate infrastructure, say voters. Poor roads and incomplete projects are the main concerns.
The constituencies are represented by Congress leaders Munirathna (R.R. Nagar), S.T. Somashekar (Yeshwantpur) and B.A. Basavaraja (K.R. Puram), who have faced flak from opposition leaders for taking away a huge share of funds. The trio justify the same citing a need for special focus on their constituencies.
When The Hindu reached out to residents living in these constituencies, they said they have not seen much progress with regard to civic amenities.
Varaprasad, a resident of Ramamurthy Nagar under K.R. Puram constituency, said the area needs better civic infrastructure, as the population has grown exponentially over the last couple of years.
“The other side of Ramamurthy Nagar, including Kalyan Nagar and Kasturi Nagar, are well-developed. However, this is not the case with our locality. They had promised an underpass near the Horamavu railway track junction. It is still under construction even though it was promised during the previous BJP government. Also, garbage collection is a huge problem,” he said.
A senior citizen living in K.R. Puram for the last decade cited safety as a primary concern. “There are several incidents of chain-snatching and mugging. We do not feel safe on the streets,” he said adding that road infrastructure in his locality is poor with no repair having been taken up.
Uma, a resident of R.R. Nagar, also complained of poor road infrastructure in her locality. “Only now, because it is election season, they have taken up some work. That apart, we rarely get to see our elected representative here.”
‘Re-laying same roads’
BJP city unit spokesperson N.R. Ramesh said out of a total of ₹9,600 crore released for the city for development works under various heads from 2015, the above constituencies, in addition to Byatarayanapura constituency, have received approximately ₹3,700 crore. “Have they at least taken up any unique projects? No. They keep re-laying the same roads. No one knows how these funds were utilised,” he said.
JD (S) leader T.A. Saravana alleged irregularities in the allocation of grants of ₹7,300 crore under the Nagarothana scheme. “They have bypassed regulations and directly taken grants from the State government. The tender process for works too has not been abided,” he alleged.
‘We have bigger constituencies’
Justifying the need for special focus, R.R. Nagar MLA Munirathna said the population and the area of his constituency merited the fund allocation. “In the core area of the city, constituencies have an average area of 12 sq.km. R.R. Nagar, on the other hand, has an area of 45 sq.km. One ward, Jnanabharathi, is spread across 12.5 sq.km. There are 4.8 lakh voters, more than twice the number in core areas,” he said, adding that funds cannot be simply taken and everything had undergone the scrutiny of officials from various departments.
Yeshwantpur MLA S.T. Somashekar added that areas in the periphery of the city deserve special attention. “Each ward has an average population of 1,20,000 people. The wards fall under the 110 villages included as part of the municipality. In every budget, they used to give ₹250 crore for 110 villages. All of us have taken it equally,” he said.
On the question of allocation, he said, “We used to approach the CM with our infrastructure problems. When the CM used to do the city rounds, he observed the reality. This is the reason that preference was given. Bommanahalli and Yelahanka have also been given equal focus. However, for some reason, only the names of these three constituencies are under the lens.”
K.R. Puram MLA B.A. Basavaraja was not available for comments.
