Bengaluru, 19 Sept

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar has said the state government is committed to finding permanent solutions to Bengaluru's infrastructure problems, while asserting that "threatening" and "blackmailing" won't work.

His comments came after industry veterans such as former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai and Biocon Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw urged the state government to immediately intervene, following online trucking platform BlackBuck's decision to move operations out of its current location at Bellandur on Bengaluru's Outer Ring Road (ORR), citing commuting and road infrastructure issues.

The ORR, one of the IT corridors in the city, often experiences traffic congestion.

Shivakumar said measures are being taken to ensure improved infrastructure and pothole free roads across Bengaluru. A meeting was also held in this regard on Wednesday.

He told reporters here on Thursday: " I don't know how many potholes may have increased (following heavy rains). But we want permanent solutions. I have called a meeting and given a deadline to them (contractors)."

He assured that officials have been tasked with drafting a plan of action.

"Chief Minister (Siddaramaiah) has also given me time since he is GBA (Greater Bengaluru Authority) Chairman, on Saturday evening, we are having a separate meeting on that. By the time, we have asked all officials to come out with a plan of action. We are on the job," he said.

"Threatening us and blackmailing us is up to them. We are least bothered about it. We will do our job," he added.

Earlier, Andhra Pradesh IT Minister Nara Lokesh had invited BlackBuck to relocate to Visakhapatnam, after its co-founder & CEO Rajesh Yabaji's post on 'X' about the company moving out of its current location at Bellandur, went viral.

In response, Shivakumar said, "let them welcome and if they (companies) feel that Bengaluru is very safe for them good for them, they will stay and do business."

"Why so many fortune 500 companies are here? More than 25 lakh engineers are already working here while in California it is only 1.3. Two Lakh foreigners are working here. Foreign passports are here in Bengaluru. Why? Because the system is good. Good talent is there," he said.

Responding to JD(S) leader and Union Minister H D Kumarswamy's social media post on the infrastructure woes in Bengaluru, Shivakumar said, " Kumarswamy doesn't have anything in Bengaluru. He is himself responsible. Why is he not opening his mouth on the funds to Bengaluru? Ask him to get some 10,000 crores from Prime Minister only for the roads.

"...Not even a single day, he has raised on the issues connected to the Central government helping the state government. For being in news, he is just tweeting that's all," he said, reiterating that Central government has been deliberately neglecting Karnataka and that not even a single rupee has come from the Centre.

On Thursday, Union Minister Kumaraswamy targeted the Congress government in Karnataka over the Bengaluru infrastructure woes, calling it "tragic" that the city is now gaining notoreity as the "city of potholes".