Another ‘uprising’ over (lack of) civic facilities

Another ‘uprising’ over civic facilities
The Mayor assured that the construction work would be speeded up.
Deccan Herald

Frustrated over bad roads and inconvenience caused due to delay in completion of the Lingarapuram Railway Under Bridge (RUB), more than 2,000 residents and shop owners in Kammanahalli, Sevanagar and Lingarajapuram took to streets and blocked traffic near Indian Oil Corporation on Thursday.

According to the police, shop owners downed their shutters in protest for more than four hours. Traffic in Lingarajapuram and surrounding areas was thrown out of gear between 7 am and 11 am due the protest.

The crowd was pacified and normalcy was restored only when Mayor P R Ramesh, Member of Parliment H T Sangliana and senior railway officials intervened and assured to speed up the construction work and asphalt the service roads.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, Rajanna, an hardware shop owner said, “we made numerous representations to the authorities to speed up the construction work of RUB, but they never took it seriously.”

He said that the dust due to vehicular movement had caused a lot of inconvenience to the residents and shop owners in the area. The situation is even worse when it rains, the slush splashes right into our shops and houses when vehicles move on these roads, he added.

The RUB has not been completed even four years after the work started, Rajanna said. The authorities are unnecessarily prolonging the construction by doing the work in phases, he alleged.

P Naveen Kumar, a resident of Kammanahalli, said, “many heavy vehicles ply on the Lingarajapuram Road and added to it is the railway line which intersects the road.”

N Sridhar, another resident, who shared the same view, said school children have to face considerable hardships while going to school and back home.