With state Assembly elections round the corner, Bruhat Bangalore
Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) seems to be on an inauguration spree. In just
six days (from March 6). There were 10 functions held in the city either
for inaugurating new projects or laying of foundation stone.

The
BBMP roped in Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, Deputy CM R Ashok,
ministers and MPs for the programmes — laying of foundation stones for
six new projects, inauguration of three completed projects and
distribution of bicycles under the BBMP welfare scheme.

“With
elections round the corner, MLAs from all the parties are in a hurry to
inaugurate or lay foundation for new projects,” Mayor D Venkatesh Murthy
told Express. “Once the election dates are announced, we can neither
inaugurate nor lay foundation stone due to the code of conduct. So, we
are taking these works on priority basis,” he said.

However, the mayor said that the works were sanctioned long ago and what the BBMP is doing now, will ultimately help the public.

Interestingly,
all these works have been executed in wards and constituencies which
are represented by the BJP councillors and legislators. Many works were
completed in a short span of time, unlike other BBMP projects that take
many years. For instance, the work on Dorekere Lake in Uttarahalli that
started 10 months ago, was completed and inaugurated the same day by CM
and the Deputy CM on Monday. Last May, Ashok had announced `3 crore for
the renovation of the lake.