More residents take to the streets

Enough! Cry fed-up residents
Basavanagar,Vignananagar People Protest Bad Roads
Times of India

The gloves are off, the knives are out. Fed up with crumbling infrastructure, the citizens have declared a war on the civic authorities to act. And it’s a no-holdsbarred confrontation. The first salvo was fired by the harried IIM-B students against pothole-ridden road. Then came a fusillade of protests by Malleswaram and Koramangala residents, voicing civic woes. All this in two days.

On Thursday, residents of Basavanagar, Vignananagar, located off Airport Road, and surrounding areas challenged the civic authority. For over three hours, they blocked traffic and downed shutters of shops, for the second time in under a fortnight. The protesters said they “have lost faith’’ in the City Municipal Council (CMC) and have set a deadline of October 13 to start work. “Or else,’’ N. Usman, a trader, said, “we will protest by doing token repairs on our own. There have been several assurances from the CMC but no action.’’

It was on September 20 that they first protested bad roads, spillage of sewage water and gaping potholes. Then the powers-that-be rushed in, promised start of work “in two days’’. But even weeks later, not an inch of macadam has been touched. The citizens obviously have cause for grievance. Sample this: In the wake of first protest, K.R. Puram CMC president L. Jayaram had told The Times of India “Work was to begin today. Because of the protest, we couldn’t start. It will start tomorrow.’’

On Thursday, the day of second protest, he parroted out his own words, as if extempore: “Today also, we were going to begin work but then had to stop because of the bandh. If we start now, these people say work started because of their protest. A sum of Rs 10 lakh has already been sanctioned.’’ He said the CMC, PWD and BCC should share the responsibility. They are tendering work on three main roads of Basavanagar, Vignananagar and Kaggadasapura, which will start by month-end. He claimed a Rs 29-lakh estimate for the project.

But these assurances and claims have not cut ice with residents. Will they have to take up the job of road construction also, besides paying their taxes for the same purpose?