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Google sparks Andhra vs Karnataka, ‘freebies’ and ‘inefficient’ charges fly
Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, made a quip about the issue, saying that the “G in Vizag now stands for Google.”
The ministers from Congress-ruled Karnataka and NDA-ruled Andhra Pradesh spared no expense in addressing investments in the states, with even Andhra chief minister Chandrababu Naidu jumping in.
This comes after tech giant Google chose Andhra Pradesh’s Vishakhapatnam for a $15 billion mega data and AI hub instead of Bengaluru.
The Google investment prompted a response from Karnataka minister Priyank Kharge, who is also the son of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge. He pointed at reported offers of ₹22,000 crore in subsidies and other freebies by Andhra Pradesh, including tax and utilities waivers, NDTV reported.
Now the freebies retort invited a dig from Andhra minister Nara Lokesh, who called the Karnataka government “inefficient”.
"If they (the Karnataka government) are inefficient, what can I do? Their own industrialists say the infrastructure is bad... There are power cuts. They should first fix those problems," he said.
Lokesh’s father, Andhra chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, made a quip about the issue, saying that the “G in Vizag now stands for Google.”
Letter to Siddaramaiah calls for stopping property tax collection in Bengaluru over poor civic work
A citizens' forum has urged Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah to intervene and direct the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) not to collect property tax from residents. The forum complains that "unscientific and incomplete" civic works in their locality have led to flooding and poor road conditions.
In a letter dated October 13 addressed to the chief minister, the residents of the Varthur-Balagere-Panathur area, under the banner of the "Individual Tax Payers Forum", which represents income tax payers and advocates for their rights, alleged that they have been suffering due to "half-measured, unscientific, and poorly coordinated" road white-topping and stormwater drainage works carried out by municipal authorities in their areas.
Recently, Biocon chief Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw reignited the debate over Bengaluru's infrastructure by sharing a visiting overseas executive's critical comments on the city's roads and garbage, prompting deputy chief minister D K Shivakumar to say the city deserves collective effort, not constant criticism.
State ministers Priyank Kharge and MB Patil also acknowledged the problems and said fixing them would require time. They called for "collective effort" to improve the city.
