Real issues lost in verbal assault

Real issues lost in verbal assault

TIMES NEWS NETWORK


Bangalore: Leaking pipes, dug-up roads and civic infrastructure in terrible shape. Residents of Agrahara Dasarahalli are upset that when these issues need to be tackled urgently, the alleged slapping of BBMP assistant engineer A N Somraj by housing and muzrai minister V Somanna has become the dominant issue.
Long-time residents are tired of complaining, stoically putting up with the shoddy progress of work by both BBMP and BWSSB. Procedural delays and stagnant works have irked them enough. Over the past three days, there’s been some progress in a few works. But, what
they want is sustained progress.
“The pace of work has picked up suddenly but we worry about the quality. They broke the sanitary lines on Tuesday and cut a few cables too. We just hope they fix them in time,’’ says a resident of an apartment along a stretch of Dasarahalli Cross Road. They’ve been waiting for drinking water supply for eight years. Many have even paid for connections.
Further down the road, the cluttered BRI Colony has regular water supply but their main problem is the crude approach road — rugged and stony. It hasn’t seen a coat of tar for almost a decade. “I last saw it black and asphalted when I got married and moved here — that was 10 years ago. Nothing happened here after that,’’ says a homemaker. Residents here say the road was dug up two years ago for laying of sanitary lines and then covered with stones.
This colony is on the way to the BBMP ward health centre. While an apartment en route to the BBMP ward AE office has a broken sewer line by the roadside, the road in front of the office has an abandoned dug-up stretch.
INTERESTING CONTRASTS
Slums despite regular water supply have no proper access roads Bigger settlements have good access roads which are tarred and dug up to lay pipes but no drinking water supply for years now Sources say BBMP assistant engineer Somraj was transferred to Ward 21 (Dasarahalli Industrial Area) on Somanna’s recommendation a year ago
ENGINEER YET TO BE DISCHARGED
BBMP assistant engineer Somraj is out of contact. According to a close relative, he lost consciousness again on Wednesday morning when he was helped to walk a few steps. However, he regained consciousness by evening. He was to be discharged on Wednesday.
CONG CONSPIRACY?
Housing and muzrai minister V Somanna on Wednesday pleaded innocent and blamed senior Congress leaders including D K Shiva Kumar for conspiring against him. “It is a deliberate effort to fix me to gain political mileage in the upcoming BBMP elections,” Somanna said on Wednesday. The minister also maintained that he did not even have a face-to-face meeting with BBMP assistant engineer Somraj. To substantiate his stand, he showed the minutes of the meeting held that day. TNN Somanna dreams of slum-free state
Bangalore: Karnataka will be a hut-free state by 2013, if everything goes according to plan. “We have proposed to undertake construction of 14 lakh houses along the lines of Andhra Pradesh in the next four years to provide a decent shelter to the poor across the state,’’ housing minister V Somanna told reporters here on Wednesday.
About 400 slums across Bangalore will also be included under this scheme, the minister said. Considering this, the department has chalked out a Rs 1,200 crore plan to build houses for all of them. A team of officials had been sent to Andhra Pradesh to study the success story there.