The Hindu : Karnataka News : Deve Gowda has done nothing for slum dwellers, say BJP leaders

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 29, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka

Deve Gowda has done nothing for slum dwellers, say BJP leaders

Staff Reporter

`How can he hold a rally against a Government of which his party is a constituent and is equally responsible for the lapses?'

BANGALORE: The State unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today accused the former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda of lip-service to slum dwellers in Bangalore, having done nothing to improve their living conditions when he was Chief Minister and then Prime Minister.

Taking a dig at Mr. Gowda's "Daridra Narayana" rally planned on Saturday and the Deputy Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah, for not allocating enough funds to the Karnataka Slum Clearance Board for providing shelter to the poor living in slums, the BJP MLAs Katta Subramanya Naidu and R. Ashok and the party's Slum Morcha President, Rathan Singh, said Mr. Siddaramaiah has not launched any special scheme for the slum dwellers.

They said Mr. Gowda has made it a habit "to shed crocodile tears" whenever elections are round the corner. The coming Chamarajpet Assembly and the Shimoga Lok Sabha byelections and the zilla and taluk panchayat polls have opened Mr. Gowda's eyes to the woes of the slum dwellers and the poor. The JD(S) is indulging in cheap politics, they said. "How can he hold a rally against a Government of which his party is a constituent and is equally responsible for the lapses," they asked.

Mr. Naidu said that the Government has sanctioned 20 acres at Koodlu on the outskirts of Bangalore for building houses for slum dwellers and a court has also ordered the rehabilitation of slum dwellers, but the Government has not carried out the order. He said 250 houses have been built near Laggere as part of the Centre's programme to provide houses to the poor, but the Government has not found time to allot them.

Mr. Ashok said the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government had launched the Nirmala Jyoti scheme in 250 slums across the State, but it was stopped by the State Government. Instead of providing a matching grant of Rs. 13.5 crores for the programme, the State Government released only Rs. 1.5 crore and finally stalled the scheme.

They also said that the Janata Dal Government in the State spend only Rs. 66.39 crores in four years on slum improvement when Mr. Gowda was at the helm of affairs. The present Government, in which H.D. Revanna of the JD(S) is the Public Works and Housing Minister, has spent only Rs. 12.5 lakhs on the 473 slums in Bangalore.

`Seek CBI probe'

They urged Mr. Gowda to seek a CBI investigation or a judicial inquiry into his allegations that 45,000 acres of land in and around Bangalore have been encroached upon by land sharks. The extent of government land in and around Bangalore is only 7,000 acres they said and wondered how Mr. Gowda arrived at the figure of 45,000 acres.

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