Corporators make much ado about renaming Indiranagar road

The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Council on Monday witnessed uproarious scenes over renaming of Indiranagar 100 Feet Road, an issue that has been a bone of contention for the last three years.

While some members rooted for it to be renamed after freedom fighter and noted folk artist Kareem Khan, BJP leaders were adamant that the road be named after former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

The issue came up for discussion with M Nagaraju, Floor leader in the Council broached subject of granting approval for renaming roads and parks. Sampath Raj, corporator from Devarajeevanahalli, demanded that Indiranagar 100 Feet Road be named after Kareem Khan. Opposition leader Manjunath Reddy and Siddapura corporator Udayashankar too backed his demand and sought to the delay in finalising the name.

Sampath Raj alleged that the BJP-led BBMP was delaying the matter intentionally since Kareem Khan belonged to  minority community. Irked by the accusation, Mayor Sathyanarayana warned to suspend Raj from the Council him if he politicised the issue. Miffed by the Mayor’s remark, Congress corporators joined the verbal duel and demanded to the reason for not naming the road after Kareem Khan.

The Mayor promised that he would hold a meeting with all the corporators and fix a date to rename the road.

Quality report

Recent reports by the BBMP’s Quality Control Division (QCD) have raised doubts over the competence of BBMP engineers. The report prepared by the QCD is based on 793 samples collected over a period of three years. Of the 793 samples tested, only 117 of them passed the standards of the quality control test of the BBMP. Corporator Manjunath Reddy demanded stern action against executive engineers who were responsible for these substandard works.

Corporators opposed the construction of a new Palike Bhavan on a public-private-partnership basis. The BBMP Council approved the Rs 400-crore proposal for a new Palike Bhavan. BJP Corporator Ganga Bhairaiah too objected to the construction of the building under the PPP model saying that it was an inappropriate move to involve private parties in the process.