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Pointing out the lopsided development in Bangalore, the JD(S) supremo said it is not enough if one installs glittering lights on some roads in the City.

BANGALORE, DHNS:

Janata Dal (S) supremo H D Deve Gowda on Thursday invited Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to visit some slums in Bangalore along with him.

He said slum-dwellers too have problems but their cry has drowned in the hue and cry of the IT sector about the lack of infrastructure.

Participating in the installation of new set of office-bearers at the party office in Bangalore, Mr Gowda came down heavily on some IT companies complaining to the Congress high command about the lack of infrastructure in Bangalore. “It is not IT sector alone that requires infrastructure, even slums require infrastructure as nothing much has been done for them though nearly half of the city’s population resides there,” he argued.

“The IT companies represent only one face of the city. They should also look at the other face (slums). There is immoral, unethical and illegal prosperity on the one side and poverty-stricken people who are moral and ethical on the other. Ms Sonia and Mr Singh should visit the slums in Bangalore to know the gap between the living conditions of these two classes.”

Veiled attack

“These people (IT companies) are making every one believe that infrastructure has deteriorated immediately after Mr Siddaramaiah became the finance minister,” he pointed out.

Without naming former chief minister S M Krishna, whom the IT companies have hailed for developing Bangalore’s infrastructure, he took an indirect dig at him by saying: “Is it enough if you just install glittering lights on some four roads in the city?”

He went on listing the infrastructure works taken up by him and the erstwhile JD government for Bangalore including the construction of a ring road at a cost of Rs 90 crore and sanctioning of Cauvery fourth stage drinking water supply project at a cost of Rs 1,380 crore. He said the Cauvery drinking water project had been taken up amidst opposition from the then prime minister P V Narasimha Rao.