‘Shocked that Belagavi is not on list of smart cities’

Belagavi District Congress Committee President Laxmi R. Hebbalkar strongly condemned the BJP-led government at the Centre for not including the city in the list of “smart cities”.

The Union Cabinet approved a list of 100 cities to be developed into smart cities by pumping additional funds on Wednesday. But, it was shocking that Belagavi was not included in the list, she said here on Friday.

In a public address , Narendra Modi had promised the people of Belagavi people to return the favour by taking up various development works in this city if they supported the party’s candidate in Belagavi, she said. The people were lured by the promise and elected a BJP candidate for the third time, only to be deceived now, Ms. Hebbalkar said.

She said Mr. Modi took the people of Belagavi for a ride through his false promises. Mr.Modi had also promised to bring down the prices of fuel after coming to power at the Centre.

But, on the contrary, this government has increased excise duty on the fuel thrice, Ms. Hebbalkar said.

“It is high time that the people of the State and nation realised the deceptive politics of the BJP and its leaders. They go to any extent to grab power, even if it meant deceiving the people and making false promises to the gullible electorate,” she said.