Coming down heavily on the Congress government over management of infrastructure and civic issues in Bengaluru, particularly the ongoing water crisis, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday accused it of “turning the tech city into a tanker city” and handing it over to the “mafia.”
Addressing a poll convention of the Bharatiya Janata Party at the Palace Grounds here, he said, “Bengaluru founder Nadaprabhu Kempe Gowda had the dream of turning Bengaluru into a magnificent city. But the Congress government has spoiled everything within a short time.” The focus of the government, he alleged, has been only on corruption and not on the problems of the people of Bengaluru.
Stating that the Congress government is not making adequate investments in crucial areas, he said, “Whether it is agriculture or urban infrastructure, budgets are being cut everywhere.” He claimed that only the Central projects were being implemented at a fast pace in Karnataka. As against the metro network of only 17 km in 2014, Bengaluru city now had more than 70 km of metro network and the work on Yellow line of metro would soon be completed, he said, taking credit for the pace.
Listing what he called his contributions to Bengaluru, the Prime Minister said work on the Bengaluru suburban rail project had started and the benefits of Satellite Town Ring Road too were being felt. Stating that Bengaluru International Airport was being discussed everywhere, he said the day was not far off when Karnataka will also get to see the high speed of Bullet train. He also hoped that days were not far when people of India would travel in made-in-India aircraft.
He maintained that his government’s initiative of opening the doors to new sectors including space had helped the youth, particularly those in Bengaluru, to get big employment opportunities as more than 1.25 lakh start-ups had come up.
He claimed the Congress and the INDIA bloc were against technology. “Congress is anti-youth, anti-investment, anti-entrepreneurship, anti-private sector, anti-tax payer and anti-wealth creator,” he claimed.
“The Congress opposed Aadhaar, Jan Dhan accounts and digital authentication in the ration scheme. It ridiculed digital payments. It also opposed the Co-WIN platform during the COVID-19 pandemic and maligned the Made in India COVID-19 vaccine,” he alleged.
While he wanted to turn the country into hub of Green Energy, Pharma industries, Electronics and Electric Vehicles to bolster India’s position as a global economic powerhouse, the Congress’ sole agenda was to oust him rather than develop the country, he alleged.
The BJP candidates for Bengaluru North (Shobha Karandlaje), South (Tejaswi Surya), Central (P.C. Mohan) and Rural (Dr. C.N. Manjunath) were present on the occasion.
