Hours after a woman and her child were killed after an under-construction metro pillar collapsed, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president DK Shivakumar on Tuesday blamed corruption within the government for the deaths,even as chief minister Basavaraj Bommai said police will take action against those responsible for the tragedy.
“This is the result of the 40% commission government. There is no quality in development works,” he told reporters in a brief statement.

The Congress took on the BJP over the incident with MLA Sowmya Reddy demanding the resignation of chief minister Basavaraj Bommai over the incident. “Karnataka chief minister must resign. It`s a clear case of poor work and people have succumbed to it. Now, people of Bengaluru and Karnataka are fed up,” Congress MLA Sowmya Reddy said.

“It`s very shocking that an under-construction pillar fell on a woman and child. Until now there were pothole deaths, now pillars are collapsing. This is a clear case of violation, negligence and corruption of the BJP govt,” Reddy added.

AAP leader Brijesh Kalappa told the media that the incident is a reflection of how Bengaluru is currently being administered. “Because of the maladministration over 40 people have fallen prey to potholes. In every single instance, the government has filed a case against those people who have lost their lives saying that they were driving in a negligent manner. This alone showcases that the government does not want to take responsibility and blames the dead person for his/her own death. The infrastructure is crumbling and so many deaths are being reported. This present metro case is absolutely shocking and it makes people feel that there is no one to look up to,” he said.
While Congress and AAP lashed out at the government, the JD(S) said that they will not politicise the issue. JD(S) spokesperson Tanveer Ahmed said there is a need to find out where the negligence is and take action. “Our party doesn’t want to politicise the matter but we stand with the family. It should be found whether the construction company or someone else is at fault. The government of Karnataka needs to ensure that this kind of incident should not happen again and provide compensation to the victim’s family. But we don’t want to make this a political issue because no political party encourages accidents,” he said.

Meanwhile, chief minister Basavaraj Bommai has sought information from officials regarding the accident. He told reporters in Dharwad, “The BMRCL will conduct an investigation and police will take action against those responsible for the deaths, particularly the contractors. The BMRCL has announced compensation. Apart from that, we will provide ₹10 lakh, each, from the CM relief fund,” he said.