TIMES CIVIC — 4 YESHWANTPUR

TIMES CIVIC — 4 YESHWANTPUR
Market raises a stink in Yeshwantpur

The Times of India


Bangalore: An extended vegetable market, a backyard junction of the railway station, a buzz between residential layouts and overt market place. That’s the befitting description of Yeshwantpur.

The densely populated place has a perennial peeve — garbage disposal. Of the 2,500 tonnes of garbage the city generates every day, Yeshwantpur boasts of the bulk: some 50 tpd (tonnes per day). This is because some few hundred vegetable, fruit and grocery vendors set up shop here from the wee hours (as they have been doing for over two decades) and by residents’ consensus, the leftover wares of the day are left behind.

Most vendors arrive by the droves from villages every day, carrying sackfuls of vegetables. Leafy veggies which are not sold are stacked into vegetating piles which emanate a stink and consequently create health hazards for denizens. Originally a village, Yeshwantpur had to willy-nilly transform into a township because of the setting up and burgeoning of public sector units in the area.

Says Damodar Unni, a longtime resident of the area: “For some reason, this area has had the same problems for years now, at least the last 18 years that I have been here. A flyover has come up but that really connects Peenya and West of Chord Road. Any form of development has been outside the purview of the area.’’

With a population of 52,000 in the ward, with demographics comprising a majority of Malayalis and Kannadigas, civic development has been abysmal, concur residents. The source of the problem is again traced to the APMC yard because of which dozens of lorries travel to and fro. The roads in interior Yeswantpur, like Mathikere, Gokul and near the railway station, are in a battered condition though MLA M R Seetharam says most of the places were asphalted recently. However, he admits that laying and maintaining good roads in the area is a problem that has put engineers under great stress.

In the crime rate graph too, the area scores high simply because it is densely populated by pockets of slums, class III and IV workers and menial labourers.

If in other areas residents have the option of turning to the local corporator for help, there is nothing forthcoming from Yeshwantpur corporator Mahalakshmi Venkatesh, JD(S).

Says a resident (who does not wish to be named fearing problems from the corporator’s husband), “She is not even a puppet corporator, she does not even exist as far as responsibility for the area is concerned. There hasn’t been a single day she has come on rounds in the area, we don’t know if the ward has got funds for any development work and if they are going to be put to any use.’’

Repeated attempts by The Times of India at contacting Mahalakshmi Venkatesh proved futile, she was always “at some function’’.

SOME ACTION HERE


Recognising the problem of flooding and stagnating in low-lying pockets of Yeshwantpur, work has finally begun on the storm water drains connecting the major valleys. As part of Hebbal valley package, drains would be regarded from Mysore Lamp Works at Yeshwantpur up to Hebbal tank and connected to secondary drains.



MLA-SPEAK: M R SEETHARAM


We have spent Rs 3.5 crore on desilting drains and it has paid off this year. Hitherto, even moderate quantity of rainfall would lead to stagnation and flooded roads. I am proud to say this year, there has not been even small amount of inundation. Of course, the area being what it is, some hutments faced water stagnation.

The garbage problems are because of the market. I am trying to locate land which can accommodate 700-800 vendors so that we can shift the market-place and have a complex like the one proposed at Malleswaram.