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Congress criticises BJP for holding `Vijayotsava'

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, FEB. 2. The ruling Congress in the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) Council on Wednesday criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) claims that the party was responsible for the abolition of the pay-and-park scheme.

The ruling party leader in the council, B.T. Sreenivasa Murthy, told presspersons that the BJP could not take credit for this people-friendly decision taken by the Congress.

"The BJP has no moral right to celebrate victory over a decision taken by the Congress. The BJP's campaign against the pay and park scheme was aimed at setting right the irregularities in the scheme. It never demanded that the scheme be scrapped," he said.

Mr. Sreenivasa Murthy said it was the Mayor, R. Narayanaswamy, who decided on abandoning the scheme after discussing it with the party High Command and the Bangalore City District Congress Committee President and Minister for Primary and Secondary Education, Ramalinga Reddy.

"We were concerned about the motorists' plight. We knew that parking fee was a burden on the common man and were working for some time on abandoning it.

In fact, the 110-member BMP Council should take the credit for the decision. We have no objection to the claims being made by the BJP members in the council. But it is ridiculous that senior BJP leaders organised a `Vijayotsava' to celebrate the Congress's victory," he added.

The former ruling party leader, M. Nagaraj, who is also the Chairman of the Standing Committee on Accounts, said all the Congress members supported the decision. "One or two members opposed it because they wanted to know about the alternatives to augment revenue. It is a unanimous decision," he said.

When pointed out that the former Mayor, P.R. Ramesh, was also against it, he said: "Mr. Ramesh is a senior corporator. He has not opposed it, but he is upset because he could not implement it during his tenure."

Claiming that concrete measures, which could be an alternative to the scheme, were being chalked out, Mr. Nagaraj said the Mayor and the Corporation Commissioner, K. Jothiramalingam, would make an announcement shortly.

Victory

Earlier, the BJP members, including senior leaders, burst crackers and made speeches to celebrate the scrapping of the scheme. Calling it ``Vijayotsava", the BJP members assembled in front of the BMP head office and claimed that the scheme was being discontinued because of the party's campaign against it.

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