Real issues lost in verbal assault

Real issues lost in verbal assault - Bangalore - City - NEWS - The Times of India

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 now 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 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,'' say residents in apartments along a stretch of the Dasarahalli Cross Road. They've also been waiting for drinking water supply for almost eight years. Many have even paid for connections.

Further down the road, the cluttered BRI Colony have regular water supply but their main problem is the crude approach road -- rugged and stony and hasn't seen a coat of tar for almost a decade. "I last saw it black and asphalted when I got married and moved in 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 the laying of sanitary lines and then covered with stones. "We're still waiting to see a proper road being laid,'' they say.

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 and not fixed for over a month, the road just in front of the office has an abandoned dug-up stretch with pipes waiting to be laid.

INTERESTING CONTRASTS

* Cluttered slums despite regular water supply have no proper access roads

* Bigger settlements have good access roads which are repeatedly tarred and dug up to lay water 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. He was earlier posted at RPC Layout in Vijayanagar