Residents of Tannery Road and surrounding areas are of the opinion that the recent visit by Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Commissioner M Lakshminarayana for an inspection of the locality has not been fruitful in any way.
To begin with, they maintain that potholes on the road, which were haphazardly filled by the Palike staff before the Commissioner’s visit on September 1, have opened up again.
The stretch from Tannery Road Circle to Kadugondanahalli police station is a nightmare for both motorists and pedestrians as it is dotted by numerous potholes and overflowing drains and, lacks a footpath and proper sewage lines.
“While one side of this stretch comes under the Kushal Nagar ward (Pulakeshinagar Assembly constituency), the other side of the road belongs to the Kadugondanahalli ward (Sarvajnanagar Assembly constituency). We do not know who to complain about these problems because of the jurisdictional row. Despite many written complaints to the local MLAs and corporators of both wards, action has not been initiated by them,” said Mohammad Ilysa, pointing at a blocked sewage.
In addition, they have to bear frequent sewage pipeline leaks on the roads. Absence of speedbreakers on narrow roads has worsened their woes. “Couple of days ago, a youth on a two-wheeler slipped and fell on a lane close to Tannery Road. The motorist fell as a result of the bad road,” said Nanda Kishor, a social worker.
Home Minister K J George is the MLA of the Sarvajnanagar constituency, to which the Kadugondanahalli ward belongs. Residents allege that the minister has not taken any steps to solve the locality’s problems.
Akhanda Srinivas Murthy, MLA from the Pulakeshinagar constituency admitted that the Kushal Nagar ward indeed lacks good infrastructure.
However, he tried to shirk off the responsibility by blaming his predecessor. “I have assumed office only three months back. I have floated a tender to take up development works like constructing footpaths, replacing damaged manholes and sewage pipelines.
The pipelines here have not been replaced in 40 years. Ideally speaking, all these works should have been espoused up by the previous MLA B Prasanna Kumar,” he said. George was unavailable for comments.