SMK to campaign as `concerned citizen'

BANGALORE: External affairs minister S M Krishna, credited as the father of modern Bangalore, will hit the campaign trail to canvass for Congress candidates contesting for the BBMP poll.
He will spend at least four days holding meetings in several wards. "I was originally scheduled to campaign on Sunday and Monday. But that has to wait till Tuesday because I've to leave for Nepal to attend the last rites of former Nepalese premier G P Koirala,'' Krishna said on Saturday.
Krishna's objective is to save the decaying city.Owing to, what he called, the BJP government's lackadaisical approach towards the city's worsening infrastructure woes, he said Bangalore is turning into a living hell, and he wanted the people to wake up before it's too late.
"I have decided to canvass not as a politician but as a concerned citizen,'' he added. Through his campaign trail, Krishna said he wanted to remind the people how his government (1999 and 2004, when he was chief minister), responded to their problems and how indifferent successive administrations were.
During his regime as CM, Bangalore was preferred as the investment destination. But today, poor infrastructure has affected not only flow of investments but also peace, harmony and development, he pointed out.
Making specific reference to the magic-box underpasses across Bangalore, Krishna said they are a blot on the city's image. Taking potshots at the BJP government's housing schemes, Krishna said he had managed to distribute over 1 lakh sites to common people. "But I was told that successive governments have only given stray sites.''
Further, the state government has failed to fully utilize funds under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), thanks to inability to raise finances on its own, Krishna said. There is lack of commitment in sending infrastructure projects in II-tier cities including Mysore, Mangalore, Hubli-Dharwad, Dharwad and Gulbarga, for JNNURM approval, he added.