BENGALURU: Bengaluru South district BJP president NR Ramesh on Thursday slammed IT industry veteran TV Mohandas Pai, alleging that IT/BT companies had encroached the city’s lakes and Rajakaluves.In the strongly-worded open letter to Pai, Ramesh stated that the ‘Save Bangalore’ campaign, which is run by the former, should be launched against those who have encroached on the Rajakaluves and lakes in the areas of the Electronic Industry Association (ECLIA), Outer Ring Road Companies Association (ORRCA), and ITPL, under his own leadership. His sharp response comes following Pai’s comment that the recent havoc (floods) in Bengaluru was due to various factors, including bad governance, corruption and a lack of urban governance.
Highest rainfall
He further alleged that IT firms have defrauded the Bengaluru Municipal Corporation of hundreds of crores of property tax each year, by hiding the information of around 50 per cent of their built-up areas. Ramesh stated that the government has given over Rs 2.5 lakh crore worth of land to the IT sector and tech companies and about 45,000 km of roads were cut for Optic Fibre Cables, which cost Rs 3,000 crore for the BBMP to fix from taxpayer money.
“People cannot blackmail the government by telling them they would shift to Telangana. Here, the city suffered damage due to extreme rainfall which was the highest in the last 70 years,” Ramesh added. He also mentioned in the letter that he would also like to inform them of the fact that several IT giants have encroached on royal canals connecting to Giddanakere and Kundalahalli Lakes, apart from setting up buildings.
Letter full of lies, says Pai
Responding to Ramesh’s letter, Mohandas Pai alleged that it has no truth, and said that Bengaluru has 21 lakh IT employees. In Karnataka, 60 per cent of taxes come from Bengaluru, and the IT sector is one of the major contributors. “IT firms occupy buildings as tenants. Question the owners who built them and the politicians who sanctioned the projects. Here, no one is promoting Telangana, but one is only engaged in promoting Bengaluru for the last 30 years. Instead of attacking, let him (Ramesh) state what is his contribution to Bengaluru,” Pai shot back.