Shopkeepers' lobby stalls median work in Malleshpalya

This is yet another example of how commercial interests take precedence over public interest.

There have been a number of accidents on the five-km-long stretch of Malleshpalya main road in Indiranagar traffic police limits, resulting in a few deaths and injuries to many others in the past few months.

Following this, the traffic police began constructing a road median to prevent accidents, a couple of weeks ago.

But, this created ‘hurdles’ for the business interests of a few shopkeepers in the vicinity.

They allegedly pressured Krishna, the corporator from C V Raman Nagar (ward 57), to stall the construction of the road median and told him that they would incur losses if the median came up.

Their contention is that there would be no parking space on either side of the road, preventing customers from coming to the shops, if the median is constructed. Krishna is said to have prevailed upon the police to stop the median work.

The Malleshpalya main road starts at Malleshpalya junction and culminates at the Kaggadasapura Road. The shopkeepers occupy much of the space on both sides of the road for parking vehicles, thus hampering vehicular movement.

Often, there is rash and negligent driving by motorists on this road, leading to accidents. Nine accidents, including two fatal ones, were reported in the last couple of months. One person was killed in an accident a month ago. Following these incidents, the police decided to construct a median to ensure lane discipline on the road.

Krishna has a rather unconvincing defence for his opposition to the construction of a median. He says, “The Malleshpalya junction is a meeting point for four roads, but three roads don’t have medians.

Only the road that connects the Malleshpalya junction and Malleshpalya main road from the opposite direction has the median. The construction of the median will lead to accidents as drivers of vehicles entering the road may not be able to see the median properly,” he said.

“The road is only 55 feet wide. The construction of the median will consume the parking space. I stalled the median construction 10 days ago. I spoke to the jurisdictional police and local MLA S Raghu before stalling the work,” he said.

The corporator did not allow the police to go ahead with the median construction work, though the police said they would provide parking space on one side of the road.

A pharmacy owner, on condition of anonymity, said he was in favour of the median construction.

N K Chandrashekhar, owner of BVK City Taxi, the office of which is situated on the main road, said: “The median should be big enough so that drivers can easily view it, especially at night.”