BENGALURU: Commuters on Airport Road are likely to face a long, tiring drive on Wednesday as traffic will be stalled in view of former BJP minister Gali Janardhana Reddy’s daughter’s wedding at Palace Grounds.Traffic from Mekhri Circle to Hebbal flyover is expected to be chaotic. Even on Tuesday evening, vehicles were lining up bumper to bumper near Palace Grounds.
On Tuesday evening, people in around 50 buses and many in private vehicles had come to the venue to attend the reception. The numbers are expected to increase five fold as many are expected to arrive in Bengaluru on Wednesday morning to attend the wedding. For commuters, this may cause a problem as no traffic diversions have been announced by Bengaluru Traffic Police.
“Around 20 law and order policemen, 20 from traffic have been deployed at the spot. Bouncers of a private agency have been deployed at the marriage hall. The organisers (Janardhana Reddy) will have to pay the expenses to provide security. In the request letter, it was mentioned that around 20,000 people would attend the wedding on Wednesday. But this is likely to increase,” said a police source.
A police source said, “We have opened multiple entry and exit points and have used another ground for parking. However, there will be traffic snarls as vehicles will block the road while they turn towards Palace Grounds.”
Mobile phone goes missing
On Tuesday evening, a person who was attending the reception lodged a complaint with High Ground police station that he had lost his mobile phone. Police have warned of mobile snatchers even though only invitees can enter the venue.
RTI activist files complaint
Bengaluru: An RTI activist has filed a complaint with the Income Tax Department seeking its intervention to check if the money used in the wedding of mining baron Gali Janardhan Reddy’s daughter is legal. The activist Narasimha Murthy alleged that the wedding of Reddy’s daughter Bramhani with Rajeev Reddy will cost around D650 crore. Murthy said, “The cost of invitation would be D6 crore. Such huge expenditure could not have been done with legally earned money. It is necessary to investigate the expenditure.”
Meanwhile, a source from the Income Tax Department said, “We have kept an eye on the expenditure and the enforcement agency will take its course of action. It will send a notice if we find any unaccounted money being used for the wedding. In this case, we are more vigilant and a team is looking after it. The eyes are on Reddy’s relatives and associates as of now as they are handling many things.”
JDS MLAs Zamir Ahmed and Cheluvarayaswamy, and former ministers Renukacharya, S K Bellubbi, Congress MLA Ambareesh and wife Sumalatha, actors Srinath, Sumanth, Chakrapani, producer Rockline Venkatesh were among the attendees.