'Tech city to tanker city': CM slams PM

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his ‘tech city to tanker city' remark and blamed the previous governments of BJP and its ally JD(S) for the current water crisis in Bengaluru.

He even reminded Modi that former Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa and some of his cabinet colleagues were jailed due to denotification and land grab cases during the BJP rule from 2008 to 2013.

People still remember how the BJP government, until just a year ago, drove investors and corporate companies away from Bengaluru due to BJP's alleged 40 per cent commission demand and a lack of willingness to improve infrastructure, Siddaramaiah claimed.

He charged that BJP's failures reportedly prompted companies like Foxxconn, Ola and others to leave Bengaluru.

“Mr. Narendra Modi, don't forget that it was your government that gave ‘Chombu' when asked to approve the Mekedatu Project, which could have provided Bengaluru with more drinking water, and also denied additional water from the Cauvery during distress situations."

The successive Karnataka government had been pushing for a balancing reservoir across the Cauvery river at Mekedatu near Kanakapura in Ramanagara district, which the neighbouring Tamil Nadu government has opposed. (PTI)