Second BATF summit on February 24

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, JAN. 23. The second summit of the Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF) will be held on February 24, exactly a year after the first summit, to review the works taken up and ensure planned growth of the City.

Making this announcement to presspersons here today after a meeting of the BATF and the stake-holders, the Chief Minister, Mr. S.M. Krishna, said efforts were on to fulfil the commitments made at the first meeting.

The Chairman of the BATF, Mr. Nandan Nilekani, agreed that not all the commitments given had been fulfilled, but the momentum had been kept up. ``A huge amount of goodwill for the City has been built up and this is unprecedented,'' he said.

He said that at the second summit, the location of which was yet to be decided, the BATF would make available to the public information on the facilities that had been completed and the ones on which work was under way. A BATF summit would be held every six months, he added.

The highlights of the public-private sector initiative included completion of the Outer Ring Road by the Bangalore Development Authority and introduction of the property tax self- assessment scheme by the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike. There had been a sea change in the upkeep of the City, but that was not enough,

Mr. Nilekani said. The Chief Minister said that the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), which had promised to regularise 46,300 unauthorised water connections, had regularised 37,700 and disconnected 9,000 connections. This, he said, showed that the agencies were on track. The fact that he was present at the meeting for three hours was testimony to the fact that he supported the endeavour, he added.

Mr. Nilekani said that the commitments made by the private sector were being fulfilled. Ms. Sudha Murthy had made a commitment of Rs. 8 crores for building toilets in the City and the design for them was being worked out. Similarly, the Rs. 2- crore offer made by Infosys for traffic management was being utilised, he added.

Mr. Krishna said efforts were on to evolve a protocol to prevent arbitrary digging of roads. The Government insisted that the agencies digging up roads restored them to good condition, he added.

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Section  : Southern States
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