Senior Congress MLA and KPCC working president Ramalinga Reddy on Friday said the State Government has released ₹1,500 crore for undertaking various development works in Assembly constituencies of Bengaluru City but not released a single rupee to BTM Layout and Jayanagar constituencies represented him and his daughter Somwya Reddy.
Mr. Reddy said himself andSowmya Reddy,would stage a protest in front of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) office on Monday if Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, who also holds finance and Bengaluru development portfolios, did not release funds by then.
Mr. Reddy said he and Ms. Sowmya Reddy would stage a protest in front of the Chief Minister’s Office on Wednesday. He would not invite anyone to join the protests since the State Government has issued an order banning all protests citing rising cases of COVID-19, Mr. Reddy said.
Speaking to reporters here, Mr. Reddy alleged discrimination in release of funds by the BJP government and said the BJP MLAs received huge sums of money while Congress MLAshave been left high and dry. While the State Government allocated ₹1,110.34 crore to 15 BJP MLAs, ₹248.29 crore had been allocated to nine Congress MLAs. One constituency represented by the JD (S) received ₹125 crore, he alleged.
Mr. Reddy said he had spoken to BBMP commissioner Gaurav Gupta and other officials and sought reasons for not allocating money to BTM Layout and Jayanagar constituencies. The BBMP officials promised him that they would look into the matter. But “blatant bias” in allocation of funds would not help the development of the city, Mr. Reddy said.
The Chief Minister has always been speaking about development of Bengaluru. “But development of constituencies represented by BJP MLAs alone is not development of Benglauru. Overall development is possible only by releasing funds to all constituencies of the City”, Mr. Reddy said.
The BBMP had not released funds to any wards in 2019-20 and 2020-21. Only this year (2021-22), the government released ₹1,500 crore for executing 298 works related to roads, stormwater drains, bridges, and other infrastructure, the Congress leader said.
The government has reduced funding to the tune of Rs 176 crore and Rs 200 crore to BTM Layout and Jayanagar constituencies, respectively, in the last financial year, Mr Reddy claimed.
