Hongasandra has remained a poor cousin of HSR Layout

Hongasandra has remained a poor cousin of HSR Layout

The Hindu

Despite being part of the IT corridor, the area does not have civic amenities

# There is no primary health centre within a radius of three kilometres
# Roads are in poor condition and none are asphalted
# Garbage is not collected regularly, say residents
# The BWSSB has to lay tertiary drains and connect it to the main sewage channel
# The previous Government sanctioned Rs. 1.32 crore but the funds are being misused, says resident


Bangalore: Civic amenities? What's that, ask the residents of Hongasandra on Hosur Road, a ward under the Bommanahalli City Municipal Council (CMC) limits.

Residents of Jnana Bharathi School Road, Om Shakthi Temple Road, Gurumurthappa Layout, Shanti Nagar and Vajpayee Nagar are an unprivileged lot. There is no primary health centre within a radius of three kilometres, buses do not ply in the area, there is no drainage system either for rainwater or sewage, garbage is not collected regularly and there is no drinking water.

Despite being a part of the information technology (IT) corridor, Hongasandra has remained the poor cousin of HSR Layout.

The Bangalore Water Supply Sewerage Board (BWSSB) has to lay tertiary drains and connect it to Raja Kaluve (the main sewage channel) but it is yet to undertake the task. Roads in the layout are only 10 ft wide. Narasimha Murthy, executive engineer, BWSSB told The Hindu that the area came under the second phase of the Greater Bangalore Water Supply and Sanitation Project (GBWASP) and that work would start soon.

Until then, residents have to face floods every time it rains and buy drinking water at exorbitant prices.

Perera, a resident of Vajpayee Nagar, showed the marks left by the last year's floods. "I have lost everything in my house. During the floods, water reached nearly 8 ft in my house," she said.

Vijayalakshmi, another resident, said: "We pay one rupee for a pot of water and a tanker costs Rs. 150. My house was flooded for a week and we had to stay in a nearby kalyana mantapa." To add to the woes, sewage gets mixed with the underground water that residents got for drinking, she said.

Even though the Government had authorised private contractors to supply drinking water to the layout, water had not been supplied. The contractors received money by producing fake bills, K.S. Anand Kumar, president of the Democratic Youth Federation claimed. Garbage was not collected regularly and this had led to unhygienic conditions, he said.

The roads are in poor condition and none are asphalted. One resident claimed that the area councillor had not made provisions for streetlights on any of the roads except the one on which he lived.

The previous Government headed by N. Dharam Singh had sent a team to inspect the flood-hit areas and had sanctioned Rs. 1.32 crore for the Bomanahalli CMC. But the funds were being misused, Shamana Reddy, a member of the resident welfare association, alleged. A resident of Vajpayee Nagar said that when the residents approached the councillor for help, the latter asked them to contact the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders.

Johnson Jose of Vajpayee Nagar, a manager, said he lost property worth Rs. 2.50 lakh owing to floods. "In last year's floods a man affected by paralysis and a mute girl, whose house was flooded, could not save themselves. I do not want it to happen again," he said.