No confrontational path with government: says BCIC

No confrontational path with government: says BCIC
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: The Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce, which had raised the red flag against the prestigious Bangalore IT.IN to kick off here on October 26, on Saturday, said it was not in a confrontational path with the coalition government in Karnataka over the infrastructure issue.

A day after it gave the boycott call, BCIC president Anant Koppar told UNI here that the chamber was prepared for talks with the government on the infrastructure issues dogging the it capital of the country.

The premier information technology trade show of the country had over the years grown in stature and become a major attraction for multinationals.

Koppar said, “We do not want to confront the government... Let Chief Minister N Dharam Singh use his whip hand and get things done.” The infrastructure of the city was in a bad shape at present and need to be attended to immediately. “Let him make the civic bodies work,” he added.

Stating that the chamber had no political agenda behind the move to boycott the Bangalore IT.IN, he said, “We have no political affinity.”

The BCIC boycott followed soon after the Bangalore Forum for Information Technology's announcement to keep away from the event due to the woefully inadequate infrastructure. The forum had a number of major IT companies as its members and the government need to hear them, he said.

Seeking revival of the Bangalore agenda task force, Koppar said during the last nine months virtually nothing had been moving on ground to improve the city's infrastructure.

“We are happy the government has taken steps for mega infrastructure projects which will fructify ten years later. But what about now,” he asked.

He said except for giving lip service, the government had done nothing to improve the infrastructure. There was no impetus for growth for companies and the state's tax structure was very high, he pointed out.

This year's event would start on October 26 as against the normal date of November 1, when Karnataka celebrates its formation day.

Already 30 per cent of the space had been booked for the event which would have pavilions for global IT companies set up under the software technology parks of India, other IT states in the country, communications, software solutions, IT mall, infrastructure and ICMT.

Besides, it would also have special focus meets such as buyer-seller meet, gaming zone and global zone.