The Hindu 01.03.2010
Garbage and overflowing drains plague residents
Krishnaprasad
| It is a mix of posh apartments and EWS colonies here |
— Photo: K. Murali Kumar 
A COMMON SCENE: Garbage lies uncleared on a BBMP playground at Richmond Town in the Shanthinagar Assembly Constituency.
Bangalore: The seven newly carved out wards of Shantinagar Assembly Constituency represent a mix of swanky business areas and posh apartments on Mahatma Gandhi Road and Langford Town on the one hand and residential localities of economically weaker sections (EWS) in areas such as Ejipura and Neelasandra on the other.
If traffic congestion, noise and air pollution are sources of constant nuisance to the upscale localities in the business hub, overflowing storm-water drains, irregular clearance of garbage, scarcity of drinking water and clogged road-side drains are daily irritants to the residents of the other localities.
G. Ramamurthy, a resident of HAL 2nd Stage, part of which comes under Jogupalya ward, says some pockets of the area are deprived of water supply.
Pointing out that several projects taken up by government agencies fail to achieve their goals, Mr. Ramamurthy, who is the secretary of Coordinating Committee of Residents’ Welfare Association of Indiranagar, feels that both the civic body as well as elected representatives should consult and take the residents’ welfare associations into confidence before spending money on development works.
“Stink emanating from the storm-water drain, which passes through the HAL Airport Road, and is filled with waste and silt, is a nuisance for us. Even though the retaining wall of the drain has been raised at several locations, there is a need to do much to ensure that water does not overflow from it,” said M. Prashanth, a businessman in Domlur.
Some areas in Ambedkar Nagar, Neelasandra, around Ejipura Main Road, Viveknagar in Vannarpet ward and Church Road in Shanthinagar ward are among the other localities prone to overflowing of storm-water drains after a spell of rain or two.
Kathyayini Chamaraj of Shathinagar Residents’ Development Association said the authorities have neither been able to find an effective solution to stop inundation of Church Road nor have they been able to ensure an efficient garbage disposal system in the locality.
“Garbage too is a perpetual problem. We have been complaining to the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) along with the photographs about heaps of garbage spread at many localities but nothing much changed,” says Imran Khan, a resident of Myrtle Lane in Richmond Town.
Shanthinagar legislator N.A. Haris agrees that delay in remodelling of storm-water drains of the Challaghatta and the Koramangala valleys that pass through several localities in the constituency is causing problems to the residents in the low-lying areas. “The tendering process for improving storm-water drains is under way. If the work is not completed before it rains, the problem will reoccur,” he points out.
Mr. Haris blames the contractors concerned for the poor disposal of garbage. “Many contractors fail to deploy the minimum number of people for garbage clearance. The BBMP too has not evolved an effective method to check this,” he said.
