PM to CM: "Mend B’lore roads, end film row"

Mend B’lore roads, end film row, PM tells CM

Apart from Dr Singh, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman M S Ahluwalia also asked the CM to assuage the feelings of the IT industry.
Deccan Herald

After the likes of IT icons M R Narayana Murthy and Azim Premji, now it is the turn of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to urge Chief Minister Dharam Singh to take care of Bangalore City’s roads.

The prime minister rang up Mr Singh two days ago and told him that the IT bigwigs had complained to him about the pathetic state of the Bangalore roads.
Disclosing this to Deccan Herald here on Monday, Mr Singh himself said: “The prime minister told me that Karnataka is such a progressive State and Bangalore is the pride of India. Please do something for the roads.”

Mr Singh told the prime minister that the bad condition of the roads was mainly because of the heavy rain that the garden city received this year.

The State government had earmarked Rs 400 crore to improve the condition of the roads. Right now, it would not be possible to take up the work as it is still raining heavily in the City and all works would start from the first week of November, Mr Singh assured the prime minister.

Dr Singh also urged the chief minister to take steps to end the stalemate regarding the screening of non-Kannada films in the State.

Expressing surprise over the film crisis, the prime minister told Mr Singh: “What is happening regarding film industry in Karnataka? Please take steps and see that the issue is resolved amicably.”

Mr Singh told the prime minister that he was making efforts to end the crisis as talks were being held with the parties concerned.

The chief minister also disclosed that Information and Broadcasting Minister S Jaipal Reddy spoke to him over the film industry crisis.

The other person to call him on this issue was Govinda, popular Hindi film-actor and Congress MP from Mumbai.

Mr Singh also disclosed that Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia too rang him up regarding the Bangalore roads and requested him to assuage the feelings of the IT industry by taking up the roads work.

CM calls up Mulayam

The chief minister called up his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Mulayam Singh Yadav and asked him to talk to the Uttar Pradesh Construction Corporation which is constructing three flyovers in the City.

The UP body, he said, had stopped the work demanding more funds for these projects citing steep hike in steel prices. The issue has now been resolved and the Corporation has restarted work, he added.

The chief minister said he has convened a meeting on Tuesday to review the various road projects of Bangalore. They include: roads being constructed by the State Public Works Department, Bangalore Development Authority and Bangalore Mahanagara Palike, besides roads leading to the proposed international airport at Devanahalli. Deadlines would be fixed for specific road/flyover projects, the chief minister observed.

It may be recalled that the IT industry had raised a strong voice against the poor condition of the Bangalore roads, especially the one leading to the Electronic City and threatened demonstrations against it.

Several industry captains also announced that they would boycott the BangaloreIT.Com starting from November 1.

Some of them are even considering moving out of the garden city because of the infrastructure bottlenecks.