Malleswaram senior citizens want footpaths

Over 50 senior citizens took out a silent march on the footpaths of Malleswaram on Sunday highlighting the pathetic condition of the pedestrian walkways in the area.

Malleswaram Social, a citizen group of the area, a month ago had come up with a Bharatanatyam video, which satirical portrayed the difficulties the residents face while navigating the footpaths in the one of the oldest residential areas of the city.

The video had gone viral on the social media platforms. The residents are campaigning for the better footpath under #footpathbeku campaign(we want footpaths) from the last few months.

As the second part of the campaign, senior citizens gathered at the 15th Cross at 10 am and took out a short silent walk, to demonstrate the difficulties the senior citizens face while walking on the footpaths.

Radhika Prasad, a member of the forum said: “The footpaths in the area are in a bad condition, and most of the walking paths are constructed in an unscientific way where the bumps give senior citizens an uncomfortable walking
experience.”

Meet corporator, too

The citizens also meet Manjunath Raju, Kadu Malleswaram corporator, who promised to solve the issues.

Suchitra Srinivasan Deep, the co-founder of the platform, said: “Footpaths are the basic necessities for any city. Our footpaths are badly designed, poorly maintained and encroached upon. But none of these seems to really worry the citizens. We have the right to ask for footpath and their maintenance. The administration is not the only stakeholder to be blamed for this. All of us are responsible in some way or the other.”

“Hence we have to create awareness among the citizens for the walkable footpath. We hope this campaign will take us together to get a pedestrian-friendly footpath in our area,” she added.