Why is MP Pratap Simha in a tearing hurry to pass bills, asks MLA Nagendra; Miffed MLA rakes up Mysuru missing on Smart City, MLC election debacle
Mysore/Mysuru: The public squabbling between the BJP elected representatives — Mysuru-Kodagu MP Pratap Simha, MLAs L. Nagendra and S.A Ramdas — over the Piped Natural Gas (PNG) project in Mysuru has continued with the leaders hitting back at each other and digging up more dirt in full public view.
While Ramdas has not reacted to the latest statements by the MP, Nagendra did not mince words and retorted sharply to the MP’s charges and allegations that date back to the previous Lok Sabha elections. A formal complaint has already been lodged with the BJP State leadership in this regard and Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has offered to mediate between the warring parties over a people-friendly project.
The bone of contention (available for public consumption) is digging of the roads where the MLAs have expressed concern on the restoration after the digging works. The MLAs claimed that the Corporators, who come face to face with the voters every other day, do not have visibility to the project while the MP is in a tearing hurry to pass the bills from the Corporation.
“Officials told me that more than 500 km of the roads in the city, mostly in Chamaraja Assembly Constituency will be dug up for the project but the amount of money set aside for repair of the roads was just Rs. 98 crore. This amount is barely enough for patchwork on the roads that had recently been laid. Is Mysuru a patchwork city,” Nagendra asked.
Corporators and MLAs do not have any knowledge about the company which has taken up the piped gas project. No one has been informed and many new roads have been unilaterally dug up, he said.
Public safety important
“Recently in Visakhapatnam, 14 people died due to a gas leakage. The company must give a demo on the work and clarify on who will be repairing the roads which will be dug-up to lay gas pipelines. And why the MP is showing special interest in the company entrusted with the project. Why is the company not ready to disclose the project details even to the Minister? Why is there no transparency in a public project,” MLA Nagendra asked.
“The MP is jumping to the defence of the company executing the project but has no intention of explaining the project to the Corporators and the MLAs. As an elected representative I have every right to raise questions over the damage to the roads and I have written only as much in the letter to the MCC authorities. I will hold somebody accountable for the repair of the roads dug up,” he clarified.
MP election and other issues
Nagendra took objection to MP Pratap Simha’s remark against him on failing to ensure the BJP candidate’s victory in the MCC elections from the K.G. Koppal Ward, Nagendra’s core support base. “The MP must clarify on the number of BJP candidates — out of the total 49 seats — he has ensured victory in the Zilla Panchayat polls. Being the MP for the past seven years, how many BJP candidates have won in Zilla Panchayat and Taluk Panchayat elections due to him,” he asked.
“Simha never contested any local body elections but won the Lok Sabha election by sheer luck while I have served as a Corporator and worked hard to become an MLA. Let him prove his capacity by winning a Zilla Panchayat election from his native place,” the MLA said.
Backing of voters
“During the Lok Sabha election, Chamaraja voters (my Constituency) gave the highest votes to Simha appreciating my development works. Everyone knows how you failed to ensure the victory of the BJP MLC candidate R. Raghu Kautilya and the MCC Council candidates. Pratap Simha himself had issued tickets to several of his followers in the MCC elections. Was he able to ensure their victory?,” he charged.
Reacting to Simha’s statement that his work can be equated to the work done by the Mysore Maharajas, Nagendra said, “What is the need for the MP to talk about so many things other than the topic? Do not compare yourself with the Maharajas. No politician ever can initiate development projects like them. You did not even get a Smart City project to Mysuru,” he said.
Displaying a list of works taken up in his Constituency at a cost of Rs. 526 crore since he was elected to the Legislative Assembly in 2018, Nagendra countered the charges levelled against him by the MP that he was not able to bring even Rs. 30 crore for development work of Chamaraja Constituency.
One more project to waste public money. Pipes will be laid but no gas will come through. Just like lights on both sides of the ring road which NEVER lights up. Before taking up new projects, see the status of existing projects MPs and MLAs.
Good intentions! Let’s see.
It’s a great project, hope it gets finished soon. But glad that someone is asking the right questions to our dearest MP.
Also, dear Mr. Simha, you or the other MPs like Tejaswi Surya are just tiny little boats lifted up by the Modi wave. Most of the MLAs have built their vote base by hook and crook, some from the scratch and some build upon the bases inherited from their forefathers. So the likes of you cant even compete against an average MLA in Karnataka, let alone the MLAs from the Mysore region.
And these MLAs are not Rohini Sindhuris, you cant kick them out by manufacturing cheap controversies and transferring them out of Mysore. You can’t hide your stinking, filthy hands for long.
Although I don’t belong to Chamaraja assembly constituency, I fully support MLA Mr. Nagendra and he has asked the right questions. It is time that elected local people should be asking questions. I hope Mr. Nagendra continue to ask questions and he has the courage and the backing of his people.
All people ask right questions and epitome of perfection and honesty when they are not on power. But when they get the power they just become corrupt scoundrels. Don’t judge their behavior when they are in opposition, 7 decades of schemes (scams) and still we haven’t learnt anything,
Local politicians are opposing this project for not getting commission. This project should be encouraged by all..piped gas benefits the people and the country. GAIL should execute the project fast n relay roads which are dug
Gas pipe line is a good project. But these MP and MLAs are quarelling like dogs and cats as if they own this project. Stop this tamasha before public throw all of you into gutters..You guys need to be example and they say BJP is a very strict party. I think it is a party with loose cheddy almost falling off to reveal the true colors of the career politicians who are self centered.
India is not a Western country. Those who say it is a’ great project’ is talking nonsense, as the infrastructure needs quality work, and gas leaks at home and on the ground need to be fixed quickly. Then the cost to household.
The person who talks about Sindhuri treatment should around and see the worst kind of examples in Mayorial cities in USA,
@Questo
Look at what is happening in the Us Senate where Senators play the even worst kind of politics . Any examples from the Progressives crowd in the Democratic Party?
India is a third world country, but the US politics-there are worse examples.
Those who question the treatment of the DC, an IAS officer, are ignorant of the history.
In British Raj a DC was always under the politician’s control, then under those above the DC who were political appointees.
Nehru wanted to change this structure, when Patel intended to bring in the IAS cadre in the place of the ICS cadre, but keeping the same structure.
Patel won , and the IAS officers who are the DCs are under political control, in terms of where they can work, what they can do and even who can be promoted and when.
This female DC -Sindhuri was foolish in picking out fights with the elected representatives, not understanding the constraints under which she, a DC operates.
As for Simha and the other MLAs, however obnoxious the fight is, they were elected, and hence have their say.
This is not typical of India/Mysuru alone-happens in every democracy. One can see such skirmishes and skullduggery in Australia, New Zealand , Europe and in many states in the USA.
The gas pipe line project does not sound good, particularly in India which is not a major natural gas producer. Given the density of population and the demand for this fuel, this project will take years to complete, and the situation of the gas supply in the pipeline will change , given India is not a major natural gas producer. Bureaucratic billing and setting fixed charges in India-taking ethe electricty example, is not the way forward. The current LPG cylinders approach is working. Why fix a system which is not broken?
Relax Mysoreans
Consider scenario in a city in Mid West America, I am describing this with personal experience.
For example,
a) Mr Simha’s equivalent person here, would be a Senator, in the pocket of a massive private construction company that specialises in road maintenance, and a gas distribution company specialising in laying gas pipeleines For them working together, gas pipe lay out, road digging, re-asphalting etc.. bring contracts and hence income. These companies would be funding his election expenses in a variety of clandestine ways, , which often involves a tidy sum to himself!
b) Mr Nagendra’s equivalent person would be a state elected rep, who would be in the pocket of another massive private company supplying LPG cylinders, and they do not want their business to be destroyed by the gas pipe line. It is in their interest that the gas pipe line does not get implemented., and hence he will fight to stop this project giving reasons of road digging etc..!
Look Mysoreans, I have seen such dirty politics played in a small county level or a city level, here in America, which often involves millions of Dollars of kickbacks either in executing a project or stopping that project!
@Questo
I am guessing, you are an India techie in America.
Whatever, How much you know about politics in your own county/city/state there? You talk about Modi wave as if it is some thing dirty.
How about this: the Democrats in the US senate increased their numbers in the last GE there thanks to the wave that catapulted Papa dementia Biden, postal-vote rigging where the IDs of voters were not checked fully, Woke politics and Trump basing angered by the defeat of saint Hilary Clinton etc.. etc.. Kamala Harris , his running mate was selected because she is a progressive-a leftie and plays color politics like Obama.
I have come across elected representatives in America, who play even dirtier politics. Because , Indians, a massive number of them eke out their living in America, does not give them the right to expect better quality of politicking in Mysuru/Karnataka/India thatthey have not sen pr experienced in their neck of the woods.
Correction: Indian techie.