Palike asphalts road, Water Board digs it up

This road was in shambles due to the perennial leakage of water from the BWSSB’s pipeline.

On September 13 when Mayor Sharadamma visited the place along with Deputy Mayor S Harish, local MLA Roshan Baig and senior officers of the BBMP and the BWSSB, residents complained to her about the bad condition of roads due to the leakage in BWSSB’s pipeline.

Taking a serious view of the matter, the Mayor directed the BWSSB officials to start the work immediately and stop the leakage within a week so that the Palike could tar the road.
However, the BWSSB did not start the work in the next three days while the local residents and the ward corporator started building pressure on the Palike to lay a road.

Subsequently, the Palike laid a concrete road using concrete mixture machine on September 16 and spent Rs 40,000 for the purpose. The next day the BWSSB authorities dug up the whole patch.

“It’s literally the Palike’s money going down the BWSSB’s drain.  Had they acted immediately we could have saved Rs 40,000. The money could have been utilised for some other purposes. The local residents think that the BWSSB is not serious about repairing the leaking pipe,” said a Palike officer.

When contacted, a BWSSB officer said: “Our Board is running on a ‘no-profit, no loss’ basis and our savings are very meagre. Also, there are several formalities to be followed before carrying out a work. It was not proper on the part of the Pallike to start the road work in haste. They should have waited for some time before concreting the road immediately,” the BWSSB officer added.