JOIN USMoney goes down BWSSB drain
They are left wondering when and where the six-inch diameter underground drainage (UGD) lines were replaced with nine-inch lines, as maintained by the BWSSB in response to an RTI query.
As if these revelations weren’t dubious enough, B K Guruprasad—a local resident who sought the information—had more in store when he asked the board to furnish the map of the manholes on Sriram Mandira Road, Basavanagudi. Pat came the board’s reply: “The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike buried the manholes while asphalting the road.“
In his handwritten reply, the BWSSB assistant executive engineer (AEE) of the Basavanagudi sub-division maintained that the UGD lines were replaced at a cost of Rs 7.5 lakh on Sriram Mandira Road alone in 2008.
The board, according to the AEE, also undertook projects worth crores of rupees in various parts of the Bangalore South region over the last three years.
Guruprasad, like several residents of Basavanagudi, was impressed. “I have been living here since my birth. But, in the last 30 years, I haven’t seen any pipeline replaced in this area,” he said.
B M Balaraj, a sexagenarian living in the area, agreed that he also had never seen UGDs replaced in the area. The projects supposedly executed by the board had apparently remained only on paper.
M R Kiran, another resident, wondered how “manholes can be buried under asphalt in the last three years. The road was asphalted seven years ago.”
Another interesting BWSSB claim is over the “replacement of UGD lines” from 6” to 9” on Puttanna Road behind Vidyarthi Bhavan.
The AEE had informed the RTI applicant that the board had spent Rs 20 lakh on this work in November 2008 and Rs 15 lakh in 2010. But many residents, some of them engaged in business there for the last 50 years, refuted the BWSSB claims while talking to Deccan Herald.
Bangle seller Mohan, fruit merchant Vijay and a security guard Yogananda were all unanimous in their assertion that no pipeline was ever replaced on Puttanna Road.
