While Bengaluru’s roads bear the brunt of the monsoon, concerns have emerged about BBMP’s negligence in the Mahadevapura zone now with regard to a newly constructed road. These concerns were brought to light by the concerned residents of Varthur. The road in Varthur was constructed at an estimated project cost of Rs 24 lakh, according to a report in the New Indian Express.
According to Jagadish Reddy, a member of Varthur Rising, a resident’s welfare organisation, “The Idgah main road was laid ten days ago since the roads had been in pretty bad shape for over a month and a half, but the soil wasn’t removed before the road was laid and now the seeds have germinated, anthills have cropped up in the middle of this newly tarred road.”
Jagadish Reddy, along with the other residents of Varthur Rising have expressed their disappointment at the state of affairs and the lack of any correspondence from the BBMP. “It is an issue and they’ve shown a lackadaisical attitude towards our repeated complaints regarding this. The engineers possess the technical specification and understanding to rectify the mistake, we cannot perpetually intervene to have our needs met.”
Amidst all this, there are speculations of shoddy business between the BBMP engineers and the contractors who are assigned the task of laying roads. “They talk about facing pressure from higher officials and political parties in an attempt to deflect from the issue at hand. We took the matter to the higher office and our efforts have remained futile, nothing really came out of it. This is why we have to resort to social media in the hopes of having our concerns addressed.”
When TNM reached out to the Varthur ward engineer Ventakesh, he attested to the fact that as of this morning, he has accompanied Jagadish Reddy to the site and tended to the small corrections that needed to be made. “In his presence today, we have completed the patchworks, some of the roads have not been laid properly, it will be taken care of immediately, I have instructed the contractor to rectify it right away.”