Bengaluru: Union Heavy Industries & Steel Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Thursday appealed to companies and investors not to quit Bengaluru over infrastructure woes, promising to teach a lesson to the unresponsive Karnataka government.
His post on X came as a reaction to an invitation by Andhra Pradesh IT Minister Nara Lokesh to Bengaluru-based logistics startup BlackBuck after its CEO Rajesh Yabaji announced exiting the outer ring road (ORR) over woeful infrastructure.
Kumaraswamy, who represents Mandya in the Lok Sabha, launched a scathing attack on the government for letting Bengaluru’s image take a beating in the eyes of investors. He held Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Dy CM DK Shivakumar responsible for the current mess in Bengaluru. “Bengaluru and Karnataka are suffering at the hands of corrupt people.”
The former CM asked, “At every step, there is a death trap of potholes; everywhere one looks, heaps of garbage. Is this what they call Greater Bengaluru?.."
STRONG EXPOSE
Industrialists are right in calling this an utter failure of governance. You don’t need a mirror to see a festering wound.”
This was the first time in history that industries have so strongly exposed the government’s failures, he said. “When it comes to levying taxes, this government shows rocket speed. But when it comes to filling potholes, it doesn’t even have the speed of a tortoise. It shows madness in looting, but utter neglect towards development.”
Karnataka’s development, Kumaraswamy said, had been sacrificed at the altar of election guarantees, while Bengaluru was collapsing. “A government that claims it has no funds to fill potholes must answer: where is the taxpayers’ money going? Whose pockets is it filling? The people deserve an answer.”
Industries were losing faith in Karnataka and migrating to neighboring states. Those states have been waiting for this very moment, offering attractive concessions to woo them. “This shameless government cannot even understand the gravity of the situation; its senses have gone numb,” the former CM said.
THREATS DON’T WORK
Dy chief minister DK Shivakumar maintained that Bengaluru very much remained India’s startup capital and businesses choose the city as they recognize the massive opportunity and its conducive ecosystem. He said he remained committed as minister in charge of Bengaluru development to building a stronger and smarter Bengaluru.
The government, he said, was doing its job and threats and blackmail won’t work. Bengaluru was home to 2.5 million engineers and there were two lakh foreign nationals living in the city. He said he has asked officials to prepare a plan of action to fill potholes. He criticized Kumaraswamy for his comments and challenged him to get Rs 10,000 crore from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to fix the city’s roads.
The 19-km ORR stretch between Silk Board and KR Puram is home to 500 plus tech companies with close to one million high paying jobs and annual exports worth more than Rs 1.5 lakh crore, said Krishna Kumar Gowda, general manager at the Greater Bengaluru IT Companies and Industries Association.
The BlackBuck CEO’s post on the mess around ORR has gone viral sparking an uproar against the government on social media including from industry leaders Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw of Biocon and Aarin Capital founder Mohandas Pai. The CM blamed incessant rains for potholes on roads.
His post on X came as a reaction to an invitation by Andhra Pradesh IT Minister Nara Lokesh to Bengaluru-based logistics startup BlackBuck after its CEO Rajesh Yabaji announced exiting the outer ring road (ORR) over woeful infrastructure.
Kumaraswamy, who represents Mandya in the Lok Sabha, launched a scathing attack on the government for letting Bengaluru’s image take a beating in the eyes of investors. He held Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Dy CM DK Shivakumar responsible for the current mess in Bengaluru. “Bengaluru and Karnataka are suffering at the hands of corrupt people.”
The former CM asked, “At every step, there is a death trap of potholes; everywhere one looks, heaps of garbage. Is this what they call Greater Bengaluru?.."
STRONG EXPOSE
Industrialists are right in calling this an utter failure of governance. You don’t need a mirror to see a festering wound.”
This was the first time in history that industries have so strongly exposed the government’s failures, he said. “When it comes to levying taxes, this government shows rocket speed. But when it comes to filling potholes, it doesn’t even have the speed of a tortoise. It shows madness in looting, but utter neglect towards development.”
Karnataka’s development, Kumaraswamy said, had been sacrificed at the altar of election guarantees, while Bengaluru was collapsing. “A government that claims it has no funds to fill potholes must answer: where is the taxpayers’ money going? Whose pockets is it filling? The people deserve an answer.”
Industries were losing faith in Karnataka and migrating to neighboring states. Those states have been waiting for this very moment, offering attractive concessions to woo them. “This shameless government cannot even understand the gravity of the situation; its senses have gone numb,” the former CM said.
THREATS DON’T WORK
Dy chief minister DK Shivakumar maintained that Bengaluru very much remained India’s startup capital and businesses choose the city as they recognize the massive opportunity and its conducive ecosystem. He said he remained committed as minister in charge of Bengaluru development to building a stronger and smarter Bengaluru.
The government, he said, was doing its job and threats and blackmail won’t work. Bengaluru was home to 2.5 million engineers and there were two lakh foreign nationals living in the city. He said he has asked officials to prepare a plan of action to fill potholes. He criticized Kumaraswamy for his comments and challenged him to get Rs 10,000 crore from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to fix the city’s roads.
The 19-km ORR stretch between Silk Board and KR Puram is home to 500 plus tech companies with close to one million high paying jobs and annual exports worth more than Rs 1.5 lakh crore, said Krishna Kumar Gowda, general manager at the Greater Bengaluru IT Companies and Industries Association.
The BlackBuck CEO’s post on the mess around ORR has gone viral sparking an uproar against the government on social media including from industry leaders Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw of Biocon and Aarin Capital founder Mohandas Pai. The CM blamed incessant rains for potholes on roads.
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