Residents at the receiving end as drain work remains suspended

Residents at the receiving end as drain work remains suspended

Social workers responsible for delay, says BBMP engineer

Supriya Pawar, Saranya Pushpan, and Bhavia Shekar. Bangalore



More than one-and-a-half months ago, residents of Serpentine Street and Albert Street in Richmond Town were told they would be inconvenienced for a few days as the BBMP was going to do drain work.
But weeks later, they painfully felt what that little inconvenience really meant. The digging work remains suspended. Residents fall when they walk or ride on the thin slabs kept across the drain. Till a few days back, drinking water supply was disrupted as diggers damaged the pipelines.
"The BBMP staff told us that they dug up the drains in front of the houses on Serpentine Street and Albert Street for better and easy flow of drainage during monsoon. But it has been left open and there is only a single slab connecting the house to the road in front of our house. Senior citizens as well as children are finding it difficult to walk on the thin slabs," said Syed M, a Serpentine Street resident whose father Syed Ameer fell into the drain and hurt his hand.
When team DNA visited the spot, we saw that on several stretches, people were not able to enter their houses because access way had been dug up and the rains had made the path slushy.
"We even spoke to our area MLA NA Haris. But the situation still remains the same. Several children have fallen into the drain and hurt themselves," complained another resident.
"We are finding it hard to walk out of our compound. My children fell from the bike as their father was trying to cross the slab on the bike while taking them to school," Shamshad Narzali, a resident of same street said.
A senior citizen, who was injured when he slipped on the mud, told DNA that despite their appeals, no help was coming.
"When my husband requested the BBMP engineer to complete the work at the earliest, he said the work was getting delayed as some social workers had raised objections over some people living on the footpaths. Following this, the BBMP had to suspend work," said M Tabasum, a resident.
Several residents said the BBMP workers had damaged water and sewage pipes. Since the water supply was disrupted for a few days, the residents had to shell out money to repair the pipes.
When DNA contacted the office of MLA NA Haris, we were informed that as the assembly session was in progress, he would not be able to discuss the matter.