RW May 2018 Wrap: MLA’s hat trick, Agara lake fest, garbage dumping & more

Agara Lake festival on June 9
To commemorate World Environment Day (June 5), the Agara Lake festival is on June 9 from 6am to 5pm by B.PAC (Bangalore Political Action Committee) and Kaagaz Foundation. The 11-hour fest will include a walkathon, contests (painting, photography, essay), lake walk, workshops (composting, sustainability), skit, tree walk, tree talk, a story telling session on Agara Lake’s journey, and tree plantation. There will be 20 stalls based on four themes: tree, water, waste and food. The visitors can sign a pledge board to ‘beat plastic pollution’, the theme of this year’s World Environment Day.

MLA’s hat trick
BJP MLA, Sathish Reddy scored a hat trick of sorts. He won the Bommanahalli state assembly elections by a huge margin, dwarfing his own victory margin in 2013. He defeated his Congress rival, Sushma Rajgopal Reddy, by more than 47,162 votes compared to his winning margin of 25,852 in 2013 against another Congress condidate. His constituency has become almost impregnable now with his winning margin only increasing over the years. In 2008, he won by a margin of 13,640 votes.

The three-time 45-year-old MLA has indeed come a long way. Having only studied till 10th standard, he is still more educated than his nearest competitor Sushma (48) who only has a diploma to her credit. The most qualified of the lot was Prasad Gowda (49) from the JD(S); he had a bachelor’s in engineering. But his biggest weakness was that he was never known for social work whereas both Sathish and Sushma are social workers for a long time, in addition to running their own businesses. Moneywise, the triangular fight favoured Sathish because his declared assets are worth Rs 66.12 crore while Sushma’s stood at Rs 30.45 crore, and Prasad’s at Rs 95 lakh (with a liability of Rs 46 lakh). The fourth most voted candidate happened to be NOTA (none of the above) that secured 2491 votes, which went to show the voter disenchantment among some residents.

Median work in progress
When proactive traffic inspector Rao Ganesh was around, the 24th Main-KPTCL junction towards Somasundrapalya faced a major issue of traffic getting piled up from both Somasundrapalya and 27th Main. To ease this very issue, he made a makeshift median to direct traffic with discarded electric poles. Today, those poles have protruded out and become a hazardous issue, with some motorists getting injured by them. To precisely fix this issue, the residents led by Kavitha Reddy have petitioned the traffic police to erect permanent medians. After many visits and letters, the work on this has begun.

Shoddy civic sense
Half the roads are filled with construction material on 17th Main and 22nd Cross in Sector 3. The corner site owner who is building a house has the most inept engineers who are inconveniencing traffic and pedestrians alike. This is going on for more than two months now and the residents are mighty angry. “Whenever it rains, the water has no place to flow because of these materials on 17th Main and the BBMP is not bothered,” says K Balachandra. “It’s difficult to even cross the road. I also heard that the 22nd Main residents are not letting the BBMP to desilt the drains as they have political contacts. This was told by one of the bbmp worker’s a year ago.” A similar scene was playing out on 24th Main as well (see photo). The site owner and engineer were the least bothered about commuter and pedestrian safety and comfort. Now the scene has shifted to another building on the same road near ICICI bank. The builders just don’t get it.

Sector 3 flooded again
Parts of Sector 3 were flooded again last month, thanks to the raingods and BBMP’s apathy. “After the August flooding last year, the authorities have still not desilted the drains inspite of all the promises,” says A Hitu. “The roads around 17th A Main and its cross roads are in a mess. The main roads and footpaths were desilted and covered but the leftover debris and material went back into the drains after the rains and the BBMP doesn’t care. There is white sand flowing into the drains during rains.” Will the BBMP Commissioner look into this, please?

Voted without getting inked
On May 12, when Mrs Chacko went to vote at around 8.40am, she was able to vote without getting her nail inked. The women manning the pink booth in Sector 6 completely forgot about it. Perhaps, the VVIPs who had visited at the time made them forget the rules. This happens only in India.

Somasundrapalya Road needs attention again
The residents of Somasundrapalya and HSR Layout are unhappy with the progress of works on Somasundrapalya Main Road and its shoulder drain and footpath. “The footpath and drain are open for months now,” complains Lalithamba BV. “Some parts of the drain slabs have also broken, which goes to show the bad quality of work. Schools have opened and the people are forced to walk on the road, amidst vehicles, risking their lives. BBMP is not bothered to get this closed. Since Feb, elections was an excuse. Post that, there is no sign of it.”

Garbage dumping in drains
This is a picture of the main storm water drain (Rajakaluve) around Agara Lake near Green View Hospital. Eyewitnesses report that people come in cars and dump waste into this drain. “Since the depth of the water is 1.5 to 2 metres, there is much floating waste that comes to Agara Lake when it rains. On top of that, the BWSSB is letting waste water into the rajakaluve,” complains one resident. The next time, you spot someone doing it, take their picture and mail the authorities and also mail us, so we can name and shame them. Try to take a video or photo, and try to take the registration number of the vehicle, so it’s easier to nail them.

KCDC: MP steps in
Rajeev Chandrashekar, the Rajya Sabha MP from BJP, was given a memorandum by the KHHSP RWA (Kudlu Hosapalya Haralukunte Somasundrapalya Parangipalya Residents Welfare Association) in April. He came to the area for a public meeting where the residents apprised him of the stink generated by the Karnataka Compost Development Corporation (KCDC). The Congress government has brought down the tonnage from 500 to 80 tonnes but the stink remains. The bio-filter plant is yet to be operational and the Refuse Derived Fuel debris is yet to be cleared. The adjoining Somasundrapalya Lake is also encroached and polluted by the plant. It remains to be seen what the JD(S)-Congress combine will do about this long festering issue. Sathish Reddy promised that he would shutdown KCDC in his manifesto, irrespective of which government comes to power. Now that he is reelected, the residents are hoping that he delivers on his promise. The residents are protesting the stink for over four years now.

Suncity Apts have a U-turn problem
The residents of Suncity Apartments at Sarjapur-Outer Ring Road junction are facing an ordeal of sorts. Whenever they have to proceed towards HSR Layout, they have to wait at the signal right at their entrance and go a few metres on Sarjapur Road, get stuck in traffic and wait at the U-turn, before making it back to the Outer Ring Road that leads to HSR and beyond. The residents are requesting the traffic police to allow a right turn at the traffic signal below the flyover from 8am-11am instead of diverting traffic towards Iblur village roads that are quite narrow and most of the time occupied by water tankers. Since nearly 300 apartment residents use this road, it’s best to allow a right turn towards HSR instead. Their other demands include making the Sarjapur flyover two-way, increasing the width of Sarjapur Road, tarring the Bellandur Service Road and removing the hump near the Salarpuria office that is slowing traffic. Similarly, they want the Suncity entry road to be tarred or concreted for long life. In addition, they want the Bellandur Lake to be cleaned permanently. “Our kids are suffering and showing signs of asthma because of the pollution from the lake,” said one resident.