Industry appeals to Rahul Gandhi for help on infrastructure

Rahul Gandhi caught in traffic jam!
On A Private Visit Here, He Is Briefed About Bangalore’s Woes
Times of India

Bangalore: Bad roads and traffic jams are the daily woes of Bangaloreans. But a high-profile politician from New Delhi, has been enduring these since Tuesday.

What’s more, he has given a patient hearing to industrialists who voiced their concern about the city’s crumbling infrastructure and assured them of looking into it.

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi has been in Bangalore on a private visit, to “learn more about the good projects’’ undertaken by the present and previous governments for the city. He plans to replicate them back home in his Amethi constituency. But what he saw is sure to have jolted him.
“He is surprised at condition of Bangalore roads and has also gone through newspaper reports on the subject. On Wednesday, he had a first hand account of the state of Bannerghatta road and traffic jam there,’’ sources said.

Rahul has not met partymen, but is interacting with industry and IT captains. On Wednesday he visited Infosys, ISRO and a Bhoomi (an egovernance project) kiosk at Doddaballapur to see its working. Priyanka Gandhi Vadera and her husband joined him on Wednesday.

Sources said at a “confidential dinner meeting’’ on Tuesday attended by nearly 20 industrialists, Rahul was apprised of Bangalore’s poor infrastructure. “No new industries are coming here. The Silicon City is not competing with Hyderabad or Chennai but with China. If investors drop Bangalore from their list, it will be India’s loss,’’ some of them are reported to have said.

Sources said Rahul was receptive to issues challenging industries in Bangalore. “We did complain about the infrastructure. Although he did not promise us anything, he said he would go back and take a serious look at it,’’ a CEO said.

A senior professor of the Indian Institute of Management is said to have recalled the dharna staged by his students outside the campus regarding the road. “Top academicians came on the road to protest, but nothing has happened,’’ Rahul was told.

Rahul’s reply, sources said, was: “Indian politics is narrowly focused on issues and short-term gains. Here, in Bangalore you are working on the latest of technologies while in my constituency and other villages there are people who are living without water and electricity too. I feel sad about this and have been grappling with this situation day in and day out.’’

Rahul, who plans to return to Delhi on Thursday also met former CM Krishna over dinner on Wednesday. His refrain at all meetings has been: “Please apprise me what this country needs. I am still learning.’’

THE GUEST LIST

Nandan Nilekani (Infosys), Suresh Senapaty (Wipro), Sreeni Rajam(Ittiam Computer), Ashok Soota and Subroto Bagchi (MindTree), Ravi Uppal (ABB), Ajit Nambiar and Raju Chandrashekhar (BPL), Ranjan Hinduja (Gokuldas and Sons), G.M.R. Rao (GMR companies), Rajeev Mody (Sasken) Technologies), Jerry Rao (Mphasis), Devarajan (Cisko), Bob Hoekstra (Philips), Som Mittal(HP-Digital Soft), Bart Hellesman(Ing-Vysya Bank), Srinivas Velu(TVS), Vikram Kirloskar (Toyota Kirloskar), Bhaskar Iyer (Astra-Zeneca) and Ghanshyamdas (Nasdaq).