From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore
Bangalore, May 22: What Bangaloreans have been experiencing and silently suffering over the years has been brought out into sharp focus by none other than Karnataka’s Governor Hans Raj Bhardwaj, when he publicly lamented that the State capital known as the air-conditioned city in the not-too-distant past has ''lost its charm as the Garden City.”
Poor infrastructure, real estate mafia and unauthorised constructions as well as indiscriminate felling of trees and ramphant encroachment of public parks and lakes were some of the major ills of Bangalore, the Governor said.
Fondly recalling his frequent visits to the State and Bangalore, when he was an union minister and late Ramakrishna Hegde was the State’s chief minister, Bhardwaj said it was a pleasure to hold official meetings in Bangalore or Mysore.
''The climate was so salubrious. Now it has become unbearably hot and it is a luxury to get a whiff of fresh and unpolluted air,” he said.
Bhardwaj said the City lost its charm owing to hapazard development of the city and the total disregard for preserving the greenery and beauty of the city.
Garbage was found lying in all parts of the City and the issue became a nation-wide subject of debate in the recent past, he recalled.
Moreover, the real estate mafia has been controlling the real estate in the City and was mainly responsible for the City’s decline as these unwanted elements were getting support from the politicians and bureaucrats, he confessed.
The Governor was chief guest at a function in connection with the Dr V K R V Rao memorail lecture at Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore on Thursday.
He said lack of commitment from the political class to develop the city led to the growth of unauthorised constructions in Bangalore and Mumbai.
In Mumbai, which was once considered as a heritage city, was one of the dirtiest cities now.
"Nobody in the government is responding to the problems in cities. I tried my best during the previous BJP government. But my efforts went in vain,” he said.
The Governor said the previous BJP government was more busy with mining rather than taking up planned development of the City or in solving the problems of urban areas.
The UPA government was ousted on account of greater participation of the youth in voting and also the disenchantment with the policies, he felt.
The electorate of the country was dissatisfied with the performance of the UPA government despite the several pro-people programmes implemented by it.
''Lack of transparency in the governance and corruption caused dissatisfaction among the public, he said.
''The rural poor have not seen light of the day due to poor delivery of services,” he said.