Bangalores crumbling infrastructure to fore

Bangalores crumbling infrastructure to fore
DH News Service, New Delhi:
Besides review of agriculture and progress of the Vidarbha-type package, Karnatakas infrastructure sector will come under sharp focus at the meeting that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will address in Bangalore on Friday afternoon.

After going through the progress under the Vidarbha package, which has come under flak from the Prime Minister’s Office, the prime minister and his team will review the progress made under infrastructure which include sectors such as aviation, railways, power and telecom. Dr Singh will be given a presentation on the investments being made on infrastructure and likely future spendings in this regard, during the meeting.
A spotlight on Bangalore and its crumbling infrastructure cannot be ruled out. Both the prime minister as well as Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia have time and again expressed concern over the issue while promising all help. Almost no meeting between Dr Singh and Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy in Delhi in the recent past has completed without the former raising the issue of collapse of tech hub’s infrastructure.
As per the earlier programme, the prime minister was to take two meetings, one in the morning and another in the afternoon, on agriculture/Vidharba package and infrastructure. However, since he will be attending a party meeting in the morning, the official meeting has been restricted to three hours from 3 pm. Official sources in the Union Government told Deccan Herald on Thursday that the prime minister would be given five presentations on the issue of “assessment of agriculture scene in Karnataka”.
“The five presentations would be on these specific subjects: agriculture plan; food security mission; co-operative credit; agriculture extension; and irrigation”, a senior official said.
The meeting will be attended, among others, by Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Finance Minister Chidambaram, and Minister of State for Planning M V Rajasekharan.
Sources in BBMP said in Bangalore on Thursday that projects proposed under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission would figure in the presentation on Bangalore’s infrastructure. Sources in the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited said PM will be briefed on Metro rail progress