Central team to review JNNURM progress

A Central team is visiting Karnataka shortly to review progress of the Centrally-funded Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) being implemented in Mysore and Bangalore.

Charging the state of apathy towards Centrally-sponsored schemes and the Mysore city administration of failing to execute JNNURM projects, Mysore Congress MP A H Viswanath said today he had written to the Urban Development Department on JNNURM’s poor progress in Mysore.

Ridiculing the announcement of the Mysore City Corporation (MCC) commissioner that the recently inaugurated Rs 15-crore city bus stand would be turned into a cycle-cum-tonga stand, the MP said its modernisation was an outcome of the JNNURM review meetings presided over by the deputy commissioner himself.

“It makes no sense to say just two months after its inauguration that it would be converted into a cycle-cum-tonga stand and the KSRTC should move out. The Rs 11 crore out of Rs 15 crore spent on the project is public money and calls for responsibility,” he said here.

Viswanath said the decisions were taken with a lack of foresight and without consulting elected representatives. The so-called fortnightly review meetings were an eye wash, he said adding, he had fixed inspection of the JNNURM projects three times, but the DC went on leave on all occasions. “I do not want to be a party to the power point presentation meetings where full-fledged review is given a go by,” he remarked. No one really knows what is happening under JNNURM,” he remarked.

While there was no district minister to supervise development schemes, the state government too was apathetic to the JNNURM projects as no leader evinced interest in its implementation. “Like other centrally-funded schemes, JNNURM too is neglected, the BJP government is allergic to its projects,” he charged suspecting motives behind it.

At the Mysore City Traffic Review Committee meeting yesterday, presided over by DC P Manivannan, MCC Commissioner K S Raikar gave an ultimatum to the KSRTC authorities to shift the city bus stand without further delay to the suburban bus stand. Plans are afoot to make the two km radius around the Palace a ‘heritage centre’ banning polluting vehicles and converting the bus stand at K R Circle into a tonga and cycle stand.

Referring to yesterday’s Cabinet decision to withdraw three criminal complaints lodged against ministers Sriramulu, Janardhan Reddy, mine owners in Bellary, Viswanath said, “It will send wrong signals to violent forces and give a fillip to criminal activities.”

Bemoaning the present political scenario in the state, Viswanath called on top leaders of all three major political parties to stop mud-slinging. “Such maligning will not benefit the people. They are frustrated. A good atmosphere should be created by ending personal attacks and diverting attention to state’s development,” he said.