With a long career of 25 years in politics, P C Mohan, the incumbent BJP MP from Bangalore Central constituency, is contesting in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections for the fourth time. At an interaction with residents from Bellandur on Sunday, April 21st, the MP candidate answered questions on infrastructure projects for the locality, solutions for traffic management and decongestion of roads, lack of civic planning in Mahadevapura, among other issues.
Here are some excerpts from the interaction:
Metro is a long-term project that could take 6 years. From a policy perspective, what can we do to use existing modes like suburban rail to ensure that we can get temporary relief for the next few years, especially for Sarjapur Road? Are there any plans to improve non-motorised infrastructure such as bicycle lanes, proper footpaths etc.?
Sarjapur Road improvement is the problem. The BMTC network is there and traffic problems and congestion issues will be solved if people use public transport. We will increase the number of buses. The MLA of the area can take up the issue of improvement of footpaths and get that done. I will certainly work on getting cycle tracks for this area. I have already got bicycle lanes done for 8–10 km along Raj Bhavan Road and NP Road as part of the Smart City Mission project. We can get it done for Sarjapur Road too.
Read more: Lok Sabha elections 2024: Bangalore Central — Know your constituency and candidates
The rule of charging of GST for maintenance charges of residential complexes should be removed – since the maintenance of a residential complex happens on the principle of mutuality without any value enhancement or exchange and it is merely a group of residents pooling together resources and commonly paying for services, for which they pay GST as applicable. Until the time that the proposal for this abolition is under review, the current exemption of Rs.7,500 per month of maintenance charge should be revised to Rs.15,000 to provide interim relief to apartment residents.
With all the people’s blessings, Narendra Modi will become Prime Minister of this country for the third time. You can give me your representation and I will pass it on to the Union Finance Minister. I will certainly take up this issue when she comes to Bangalore and . also we will have an interaction with her and definitely we sort it out.
How will you take up the issues of lack of planning in Mahadevapura?
Mahadevapura master plan is a must. For that, all the residents of this area have to sit together and give their inputs on the ongoing projects. Permissions for real-estate projects are given anticipating road widening in the future. If you all are with me, we can discuss this and we can look at stopping major development projects till the Master Plan is prepared.
First time when I contested there were about 2,75,000 people who voted; today the number has gone up to 6.04 lakh. There is also a large floating population. I am working towards speeding up the work on Metro and suburban rail networks and other mode of public transport. We will also work towards developing green spaces.
Read more: Lok Sabha 2024: Know your MP – P C Mohan, Bangalore Central Constituency
Watch the full interaction:
Note: The above video was shared by the organisers of the interaction between incumbent MP and candidate P C Mohan and voters, facilitated by the Bangalore Apartments’ Federation (BAF), volunteers of the Million Voter Rising campaign and other civic groups.