People support good and efficient leaders: Gadkari

"The need of the hour is to change the present political culture. Short cut cuts you short. Only those who work selflessly among the people and have a long term vision of development are successful in politics," Gadkari said at a book release function in suburban Mumbai.

Gadkari said people support good and efficient leaders. Criticising the urban development laws in the state, he said corruption is thriving due to its vagueness and non-transparency.

"This is a system which does not protect public interest. The need of the hour is to study laws from the world over and prepare a model legislation which is result oriented and corruption free. Auditing and accountability is necessary in the urban development department," he said.

He said improvement in the system is possible only if elected representatives are aware and vigilant. "They (representatives) have to study for that," he said, adding that qualitative improvement in politics is possible with people`s support.

Gadkari urged BJP leaders to involve professionals from all walks of life to make suggestions for development, which can be included in the party`s vision document.

He claimed that in his entire political career, he has never spent even Rs 500 on a garland for a top leader. "I have neither put my cut outs on the streets nor I have I put cut outs of other leaders," he said.

Gadkari complemented senior party functionary Parag Alavani for his book on town planning scheme and said studious party functionaries and those with elective merit can help get the necessary change in the political system.

Alleging that corruption in the SRA scheme was rampant, he said Rs 20,000-crore could be earned annually from one SRA scheme through auction. Earlier, addressing a party workers rally in Nashik, Gadkari came down heavily on the UPA government and held it responsible for the high inflation.

The Centre has a list of 700 black-money holders and they should release it immediately, he added.