Congress Manifesto 2019: Consultation on 'Infrastructure and Mobility sector' held in Bengaluru

Bengaluru, Dec 8: The Indian National Congress held a manifesto consultation on 'Infrastructure and Mobility sector' in Bengaluru on Friday. The consultation discussion was chaired by Prof. Rajeev Gowda, Rajya Sabha MP.

Former Union Minister Kumari Selja, Congress MLC L Hanumanthaiah, Harris Nalpad (MLA Shanthinagar constituency), participated in the discussion along with a range of experts from the Infrastructure and Mobility sector.

Congestion and pollution:

Sowmya Rao, from Uber, emphasised on solutions to congestion and pollution highlighting the need to increase the utilisation capacity of vehicles, car pooling permit to larger capacity vehicles and a sustainable public transport.

Solid waste management:

Mukunda from Citizen Action Forum spoke about solid waste management at the source and at ward level; improve water supply by rejuvenating and interconnecting lakes in Bengaluru, and implementing rain water harvesting, while making urban local bodies made financially self reliable. He also advocated to improve mobility through a fully functional commuter rail, and encouraged implementation of a comprehensive urban policy by improving tier 2 and 3 cities like Davangere, Hubli, and other cities away from Bengaluru.

Kathyayini Chamaraj, founder of Civic, suggested for improvements in social infrastructure such as the need to increase the number of Anganwadis, to address malnutrition through policy interventions, and upgradation of schools to reduce dropouts of girl children.

Heritage conservation:

As far as Heritage conservation is concerned, Kathyayini Chamaraj suggested the '4 Ps' formula- Protection, Preservation, Promotion, and Popularisation. She also spoke about the importance of identification and documentation of monuments and conservation through coordination of offices of ASI, Railways and DC offices.

Integration of public transport:

Rajkumar Dugar, Resident Welfare Association from Vasanthnagar, stated that BMTC bus services needs to be improved and integration between various modes of public transports like BMTC, Namma Metro and Railways.

Vinay Srinivas, from Alternative Law Forum, emphasized the need to eliminate the interference of central government in local governance, and provisions of master plans at ward levels and not by foreign consultants.

People can send their inputs:

The Manifesto Committee, under the Chairmanship of former Union Minister P Chidambaram, has been holding consultation events for the last one month. Prof. Rajeev Gowda is the Convenor of the committee. The committee already completed many consultation events like Ex-Servicemen, MSME's, Education, Environment, SC/ST and OBC, Healthcare, Food Security and Nutrition, and Banking in cities like Aligarh, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Mangalore, Guwahati, Pune, Nagpur, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Vishakapatnam, and other cities across the country.

Also, the party urged the public to send their inputs to [email protected] or through its website: manifesto.inc.in. for the preparation of "People's Manifesto".