From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru
Bengaluru, Nov 5: Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai taunted the State Congress President D K Shivakumar to first worry about his own party which is self-destructing and splitting at the national level.
Speaking to reporters at the Hubballi airport before leaving for Bengaluru on Friday, the Chief Minister said the BJP was not bothered about Shivakumar’s claims that the party leaders were keen on joining Congress after the defeat in Hangal assembly by-election.
"The Congress party has lost miserably in Sindgi. Now to cover up the defeat, he (Shivakumar) is talking about BJP leaders joining Congress party. Why would any self-respecting BJP leader join a sinking ship," he asked.
Bommai participated in the Deepavali pooja celebration at Union Minister Prahlad Joshi’s residence in Hubballi. Dharwad Deputy Commissioner Nitesh K Patil and BJP MLA Amrut Desai were present.
4 SDRF Teams for Bengaluru
On arrival in Bengaluru, the Chief Minister chaired a meeting on the problems in Bengaluru due to the heavy downpour and consequent floods in the city during the last month.
Pointing out Bengaluru had heavy rains in the last two months and that the Indian Metrology Department has predicted heavy rains for the next five to six days, Bommai asked the BBMP Chief Commissioner to prepare plans for short term and long-term solutions to tackle the havoc due to heavy rains, especially in low lying areas.
The Chief Minister said steps will be taken to raise 4 State Disaster Management Force (SDRF) teams to tackle all monsoon related problems in the city from the present one team and assured that special funds will be released to the SDRF teams for carrying out rescue and relief works.
He pointed out that the breakwater walls in storm water drains had broken in most places. Out of the total length of 842 kms of breakwater walls along the storm water drains in the city, repairs for 389 kms damaged walls was needed and 75 kms of the walls must be rebuilt. All the repair and construction work will be taken up on a priority basis as there were bottlenecks in most of the storm water drains.
The Chief Minister mentioned that he will review the progress of the work every month to ensure regular follow up and also ensure that desilting work of the storm water drains was also carried out after the monsoon was over in order to prevent recurrence of the problem.
Answering questions, he said he had convened the emergency meeting soon after returning from Hubballi with barely an hour’s notice. As a result all the ministers from Bengaluru could not be present and Dr Ashwath Narayan came because he had come on some other work, he said pointing out that there was no problem among the ministers over being entrusted with Bengaluru supervision.
Higher Education Minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan, Chief Secretary P Ravikumar, BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta, Additional Chief Secretary Rakesh Singh, Chief Minister’s Principal Secretary Manjunath Prasad and others attended the meeting.