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By: B V Shiva Shankar Date: 2009-10-16 Place: Bangalore




Residents openly break the law to put up a gate at a public road in the heart of Bangalore's urban centre

Apartment residents in the heart of Bangalore have installed a gate and guards to illegally bar public access to their road.


We want our privacy: Residents of Vasvani Solitaire and Sterling Enclave (below), off Papanna Street, have put up a gate and a security guard on the public road pic/Vinod Kumar T


Pappanna Street across St. Marks Road, just a half a stone's throw from M G Road, is a busy public thoroughfare, housing a Wipro office, Orchid restaurant, and a Citibank ATM.

A guard stops you at the gate when you try to enter the street. He lets you in only after he is satisfied with your reply to his queries.

Vaswani Solitaire and Sterling Enclave are the apartments on the road, and they are unhappy with the public using what they illegally consider their own space.

"The gate is placed for security," said a manger of Vaswani Solitaire who wouldn't give us his name. "We can't let everybody in as it disturbs our residents."


Sterling Enclave


The guard said he was working to shoo drivers away and ensure that the road was free. "Owners don't like outsiders parking here," he said.

As for entry, only those going to the commercial establishments are allowed, but they have to park their vehicle outside the gate.

"Parking has become a nuisance and we don't want any vehicle parked near our apartments. People ignore the 'no parking' boards and that is why we have gone in for the gate," said Jayendar, Secretary of Papanna Street Apartments Residents Association.

He said the residents were maintaining the road, like what Vijay Mallya was doing with Vittal Mallya Road.

Papanna Street is parallel to Vittal Mallya Road, which houses the UB empire. Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials said it was illegal to block a public road.

"They had done this earlier, and we had removed the gate a couple of months ago," said V Krishna, Assistant Engineer in charge of the area. "If they have put it up again we will take action against them."

Bharat Lal Meena, Commissioner, BBMP, said, "The BBMP is capable of maintaining the road and we have not asked them to maintain it. Even if they maintain it, it does not mean they can block public access."

May 20 2008
The BBMP issues a notice to all 'gated communities' directing them to stop barricading roads and marking them as 'private'