'I will work to restore Garden City's glory'

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, NOV. 24. The Mayor, Mr. K.Chandrashekar, on Saturday promised to work to bring back Bangalore's lost glory as the ``Garden City''.

Addressing his maiden Press conference after taking charge, Mr. Chandrashekar said at least one park in each of the 100 wards would be upgraded into a ``model park'' in the next one year.

``I will take up upgradation of parks on priority. I always loved nature and have implemented programmes to upgrade many parks in my ward -- Hanumanthnagar. I intend to extend the same programme to other parts of the City. I assure you, 100 parks will be developed within 12 months,'' he said.

Mr. Chandrashekar said he had chalked out a master plan for the overall development of the City. ``The plan comprises upgradation of civic services, traffic management, and resources and infrastructure for the City. I will discuss the modalities of implementing the plan with the BMP Commissioner, Mr. Ashok M.Dalwai, before announcing it,'' he said.

He said he would be available to the common man and disprove the notion of being only an ``ornamental Mayor''. ``I want to serve the City to the best possible extent. I have only 275 working days in my term and I am confident that I will prove myself. I will see to it that the Mayor's name carries weight and not just an image,'' he said.

On the extension of the Mayoral tenure, he said the Chief Minister would take a final decision on the matter.

Stating that going on foreign jaunts was not on his agenda at the moment, he said he would focus on improving quality of education in BMP schools, ensure better co-ordination between the elected body and bureaucracy and introduce reforms to make BMP more ``people-friendly''.

He expressed his gratitude to the Chief Minister, Mr. S.M.Krishna, for having selected him to the post. ``I will extend all co-operation to the State Government in realising the Chief Minister's vision of converting Bangalore into one of the best cities in South Asia,'' he said.

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Section  : Southern States
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