Even the most poshest layouts of Bangalore City aren’t really free from potholes, bumpy roads, garbage and stray dogs. Residents living in and around the Myrtle Lane and Leonard Lane, the road off Richmond Road (next to TNT Building) are greeted by heaps of garbage, stray dogs and potholes, that get bigger and deeper by the day, every morning.

The number of stray dogs simply multiply, the heap of garbage only gets bigger and the stench just never lets go off this place. There are cars and call centre vehicles parked all along this stretch making it difficult for residents to get their cars out of their homes.

Despite garbage collectors coming by in the morning, mounds of waste appear all over again at the street corners in no time, leaving an open invitation to stray dogs and when it rains the garbage spreads across the road.

“Despite repeated complaints the entire surrounding area including Richmond Town, Johnson Market and Convent Road dumps garbage at this corner. In the evening butta wallas (maize corn vendors) dump leftover contents here. Stray dogs are a menace because of this,” says a resident living in Myrtle Lane.

Also, most part of the pavements on this stretch are covered with building materials which are left uncleared for days on end and sometimes even months together. The roads are unmotorable. “We can’t get our cars because it gets stuck in these potholes. Also, water fills this space and serves as a perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes,” says James Mehrotra, President of the Ispahani House.

The Richmond Town Residents’ Association and the Apartment Owner’s Association of Ispahani House have done their bit by laying out plastic sheets at the street-corners, hoping this would deter people from dumping garbage.

“The dumping of garbage continues, building materials block roads and leave pedestrians no option but to walk on the roads. We find it difficult to reverse our cars because of this. Also the cars, belonging to a car rental located nearby, park all along this road clogging up the traffic,” says Satej Alur, secretary of the apartment owner’s association of Ispahani House.

The commissioner BBMP, Dr S Subramanya, says he has made all efforts to make sure that garbage doesn’t collect in street corners. “Dumping building materials on roads is something that we have been trying control.

We will soon issue coupons to all those who come with a plan for a buildings and will charge them on the number of coupons we issue for building material. The huge amounts, we charge, should deter them from dumping construction material on roads,” he says.  Plans are also on to double the number of garbage collectors in the City.