Citizens slam DyCM on 'Udta Bengaluru' comment

Citizens took to social media on Wednesday, a day after Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister Gangadharaiah Parameshwara in the council asserted that he would not let Bengaluru become “Udta Bengaluru”.

Bengalureans took to Twitter to mock and question Parameshwara whether he was aware of the drugs and liquor business thriving in city’s pubs and bars. Many questioned what action Parameshwara intends to take to curtail the sale of liquor and control the drug mafia since it was the Congress’ second term.

They said his statement was contrary to what Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy presented in the budget. In the budget, the chief minister had stated that excise rate would be increased by 4% on all 18 slabs and the department aims to reach a target of Rs 19,750 crore for the 2018-19 financial year.

Dr Vikram Narayan tweeted: “Parmeshwsraji while your Nidderamiah govt was under deep slumber to the commons grievance, Bengaluru became Udtha Bengaluru a long time ago. You can get all types of drugs in the pubs and eateries of Indiranagar. We expect very little from the present govt as well.”

'i Change Indiranagar' through its Twitter handle brought to Parameshwar’s notice about the drug mafia thriving since 2016, which was published in various sections of the media.

All through the day, many liked, followed and retweeted the messages. Only during evening hours, when DH, brought the issue to the notice of the minister and his subordinates, Parameshwar tweeted stating: “Thank you for bringing this to my notice. We take the drugs menace very seriously and I’m asking @CPBlr to look into this and report back to me at the earliest.”

However, despite repeated attempts, Parameshwara was not available for a comment.