During the Parliament zero hour on Monday, December 19, Bengaluru Central MP PC Mohan shed light on how important pockets of land are under the control of defence units in the city and this is hindering development. The Bharatiya Janata Party MP said, “Bengaluru city has been expanding fast and infrastructure has to keep pace with the rapid development. The government of Karnataka along with BBMP [Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike] have been working together to improve the infrastructure but certain land pockets continue to remain with the defence units.” The MP stated that these land pockets have remained with the defence units despite the armed forces authorities agreeing to transfer defence land for infrastructure projects.
PC Mohan further said that this issue has been raised earlier and the Defence Minister in 2018 had addressed the matter and agreed to hand over land in 10 locations in Bengaluru that were under defence units for infrastructure projects. The Minister said, “Except for three locations, the local [defence] authorities have not given permission for any work. Due to these issues, citizens of Bengaluru are suffering [due to] increased traffic. So I request the raksha mantri [Defence Minister] Rajnath Singh to urge the defence officials to address the issue at the earliest.”
PC Mohan has been actively campaigning for British-era names in Bengaluru to be changed. In January 2022, he had written to the Chief Minister and asked for these names to be changed to that of freedom fighters from Karnataka. The MP stated that the names of various public spaces in his constituency Bengaluru Central, have been named after British officials and cited examples like Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital in Shivajinagar, Minto Hospital in Chamarajapete after then Viceroy Lord Minto, Victoria Hospital after Queen Victoria, Avenue Road, Lavelle Road, Cunningham Road.
#Bengaluru is rapidly growing, and its infrastructure needs to keep up.
— P C Mohan (@PCMohanMP) December 19, 2022
The Defence Ministry accorded working permission for transferring defence lands to the BBMP, facilitating the implementation of pending infrastructure projects.
Urged to resolve this issue at the earliest. pic.twitter.com/oUZskIcUSs