MLA too busy listing problems than solving them

MLA too busy listing problems than solving them
Deccan Herald

First-time MLA from Bharathinagar Nirmal Kumar Surana has a stupendous task to settle the grievances of the people of his constituency and he is making all efforts by entertaining complaints either at his office or going around his constituency.

Coming under Bangalore North Parliamentary constituency, Bharathinagar has a concentration of linguistic minorities like Malayalees, Tamilians, Telugu speaking people and Bengalis and religious minorities like Christians, Muslims, Jains and Sikhs.

Major problems

Most of the problems in this constituency broadly fall under three categories: The first relates to water and includes non-existence of water supply, less water pressure because of old pipes and poor frequency of water.

The second problem relates to drainage. There is an overflow of sewage water and the old drainpipes cannot take the pressure.

The problem aggravates during the rainy season. Moreover, the work has come to a standstill on a major drainage work viz: replacing of 40 year old drainage pipes along the narrow 12-feet Nala Road in Ulsoor. Trench digging machinery and pipes have been lying along the road for the past seven months.

Housewives complain of blockage of water in their drains due to the stoppage of work.

The third problem relates to slums. About 40 per cent of the voters live in slums accounting for a population of about 50,000 people.

There are as many as 24 slums in the constituency spread across all the five corporations wards namely Bharathi Nagar, Cox Town, Ulsoor, Murphy Town and Maruthi Sevanagar.

The slums are on both private and government land and among them 18 have been declared as slums. The Karnataka Slum Clearance Board has a mere Rs 3,000 for the development of each slum, which at the most can fetch 1 kg of rice for each family.

Constituency stinks

Besides, the lack of toilet and bathroom facilities is a major problem in slum areas and there are no funds earmarked for the construction of community toilets and bathrooms.

Legislator Surana has said that about four NGOs have come forward to construct eight to 10 toilets with bathrooms in each of the slums in the constituency.

The participation by the slum-dwellers will be by the way of maintenance of the toilets and bathroom.

Crematorium

The century old Kalpalli Crematorium which was converted into an electric crematorium in 1989 is not functioning for the past six months.

Bodies have to be taken to Wilson Garden Crematorium or Banashankari or alternatively people have to spend Rs 4,000 for firewood for cremation.

SURANA’S SUR
Under the slum water connection scheme of BWSSB 1,000 water connections have been given at Rs 800 for each connection.

Kadaranpalya in Indiranagar which faced a water crisis for the past 20 years not gets water regularly.

Kalpalli Electric Crematorium, not functioning for over six months, will become operational in the next few days.

Old age, widow and handicap pensions in respect of 312 beneficiaries have been submitted for approval and are under process.

Grievances numbering 874 have been registered during the last six months of which 813 have been redressed.

350 applications have been received at the ration card adalat and new green cards for Above Poverty line (APL) beneficiaries have been issued.

Conducted three padayatras of one month each covering the whole of the constituency to meet people and redress their grievances.

VOTERS’ VOICE

Anita, housewife, Gupta Layout, Ulsoor: The delay in drainage work for over a year has led to blockage of drains in our locality leading to stagnation of sewage water.

Suresh Kumar, Annaiah Building, Nala Road, Ulsoor: We have made numerous representations to speed up work on the drainage but nothing has been done.

Selva Kumar, grocery shop owner: The R K Mutt Road in Murphy Town has been dug up and not yet repaired.

Mangai, housewife, Eashwar Layout, LBS Nagar, Indiranagar II stage: We get water every alternate day for half a day.