Residents of Sriram Sameeksha apartment complex in Jalahalli, Northwest Bengaluru on Sunday took to the streets to fix the potholes and trenches present in abundance on their road. With the intention of making it motorable, they relaid and filled up the pits on the road connecting Gangammana Gudi police station and Kuvempunagar, where the said apartment lies.
This, after they had approached officials of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), but did not elicit any response.
According to residents, minor accidents have been occurring often and the recent rains have worsened the situation. So the residents discussed amongst themselves and decided to act. Equipped with brooms and shovels and wearing protective gear, more than 20 volunteers including men, women and children, gathered on Sunday morning to fix the road.
“There are over 700 families living in our apartment and we use this road every day. The state of the road was really awful, the trenches were as deep as the wheels of the scooters and there have been a lot of accidents recently,” said Unni Krishnan Menon, a retired Indian Navy officer who supervised the work.
Divided between two wards, Menon said they had tried and contacted the contractors but they were unable to take necessary action. So they went ahead and got formal approval from the police to fix the problem themselves. “If civic authorities sometimes cannot solve the issues that are concerning the people, then citizens have to take responsibility and pitch in, we cannot leave the problem lingering,” added Menon.
The residents haven’t lost their faith in the BBMP though.
Dileep, resident of Sriram Sameeksha apartment said, “We understand there are thousand such roads that need their attention and we believe that BBMP will work on fixing the road. After a couple of ladies fell down because of the road, we talked about it over a cup of tea and decided to take the initiative to fix the road ourselves. We got together and did it for the safety of our people.”