Mayor D. Venkatesh Murthy, Deputy Mayor L. Srinivas and Ruling Party Leader N. Nagaraju, on their last day in office on Tuesday, complained about the “non-cooperative” officials. However, they told presspersons that they were “satisfied with their achievements” during their 16-month tenure.
Mr. Venkatesh Murthy said that he had faced opposition from his own colleagues within the Bharatiya Janata Party, the ruling party in the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) council. “Despite this, the opposition and non-cooperation from the lower-level officials, I am satisfied with what has been achieved,” he said.
Mr. Venkatesh Murthy, said that during his tenure, he had to work with four Commissioners and three Chief Ministers, and that also had a bearing on the slow implementation of development works in the city. According to him, the city’s roads leave much to be desired. As many projects are stuck at various levels, either pending approval with the standing committees, council or the government, “the next Mayor should prioritise clearing all these pending projects.” Some of the pending projects include signal-free corridors, road widening, construction of welcome arches and a few welfare schemes. On the garbage issue, Mr. Venkatesh Murthy opined that it will take at least another three years to solve the problem.
To a query on his achievements, he claimed that it was during his tenure that segregation of waste at source was made mandatory, and a fine was fixed for defaulters. The new advertisement and parking bylaws were also approved by the government during his tenure. Besides that, the Cadre and Recruitment Rules that had not been revised since 1971 were framed and sent to the government for approval. To another query, he said, “It was disappointing that my own party colleague, who praised the 2013-14 budget that I had presented, wrote to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah criticising it. None of the councillors had such problems when unrealistic budgets with an outlay of around Rs. 10,000 crore were presented,” he said.
He blamed the BBMP officials for his failure to present the administrative report. Though he had sought information from officials concerned two months after he assumed charge, “I am yet to receive any reply.”
‘No team work’
Mr. Nagaraju blamed the officials for their lackadaisical attitude, but maintained that he had “not worked to his heart’s content.” He lamented that the Mayor and the Commissioner did not work as one team, and had instead worked independent of each other.
