Bengaluru, 18 Sept 

JD(S) leader and Union Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Thursday said it is "tragic" that Bengaluru is now “gaining infamy as the City of potholes".

Claiming that industries are losing faith in Karnataka and migrating to neighbouring states, the former chief minister urged them not to leave the City. 

"We will make Bengaluru great again," he wrote on X.

Kumaraswamy's remarks came after industry veterans in the City, like former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai and Biocon Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, urged the State government to intervene after online trucking platform BlackBuck decided to move the company out of its current location at Bellandur on Bengaluru's Outer Ring Road (ORR), citing road infrastructure issues.

"The proud city of Bengaluru, built by Nadaprabhu Kempegowda, has suffered a severe blow to its reputation," Kumaraswamy wrote. 

Alleging that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy DK Shivakumar are responsible for this "disgrace", he said, "today, Bengaluru and Karnataka are trapped in the hands of the incompetent and the corrupt. At every step, there is a death trap of potholes; everywhere one looks, heaps of garbage. Is this what they call Greater Bengaluru? What is BBMP (civic body now Greater Bengaluru Authority) doing, swallowing taxpayers' money while doing nothing?"