M'lore CDP designed for land developers: Siddaramaiah

Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, he said since District-in-Charge Minister J Krishna Palemar himself is a real estate entrepreneur, the CDP has been designed in the interests of developers’ fraternity.

“There are a lot of complaints that those from poor and middle class with 2-3 cents of land in the Corporation limits cannot build their own houses due to the guidelines in the new masterplan. While introducing a new plan, the government should always be pro-poor but not for the vested interests,” he said.

Pending bills

Siddaramaiah said the State government boasts of an overflowing treasury but crores of rupees bills are pending with various departments. “The PWD owes Rs 1,200 crore in Bangalore alone and Rs 1,096 crore in other parts of the State. But the money allocated to the PWD in the new fiscal is only Rs 900 crore,” he said.

“The CM always says there is no dearth of funds with the government. If it is true, why such large amount of bills are pending?” the Opposition leader questioned.

‘Political renunciation’

The State government has borrowed Rs 1,400 crore loans from the commercial banks and has got Rs 22,554 crore from the Central government under the JNNURM for Bangalore’s development. The BJP government has not spent a single rupee from its own pocket for Bangalore’s development, Siddaramaiah said.

“If the government proves that it has spent its own money for the development projects in Bangalore, I will forsake politics,” he challenged. He also said the government has not spent any amount towards building houses in the flood affected areas. “Whatever money spent and houses built, that are all the contributions of donors like Amritanandamayi,” he noted, adding that the government has not spent the money from the Centre and the donors so far.

“The government tries to identify itself as ‘pro-minority’ by showing huge allocations to the minorities, SC/STs and backward classes, but it never happened in reality. It had earmarked Rs 207 crore for minorities in the 2009-10 budget, but the released amount is only Rs 43 crore,” he said. District Congress President and MLA B Ramanath Rai, MLAs U T Khader, Abhaychandra Jain, former MP Vinay Kumar Sorake among others were present at the press meet.