The News Minute | October 9, 2014 | 6.03 pm ISTThe deaths of two children under circumstances that need not have arisen in the first place have made many question the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s (BBMP) responsibility in ensuring that Bangalore’s citizens are safe when they use public infrastructure.The decomposed body of a nine-year-old Geetha Lakshmi was found in a lake two days after she fell into an open storm water drain in Bangalore. Read: Decomposed body of 9-year-old washed away in Bangalore drain foundA 12-year-old boy drowned after he fell into an open pit in a construction area on the campus of a government college in Bangalore when he was playing.Read: 12-year-old boy drowns in open construction pit in BangaloreThe News Minute spoke to some residents of Bangalore and asked them to list the biggest problems that people face and need to be urgently addressed by the BBMP. Here’s what they said:R Pancharatnam, a retired farmer:Transport: traffic is chaotic. When I was in school, I would cycle to St. Joseph’s School on Museum Road in 25 minutes from Malleshwaram. But now, it takes one hour by car.Garbage collection is very badPavements are unfit for walking. Noor Jahan Khan, homemaker:Garbage is a very big problem. Every locality has one area identified without consulting the locals and it is unhygienic because lies there for days and seeps into the water when it rains.Old trees need to be identified. You can’t just wait for a tree to fall on someone’s head and then identify that it’s old and needs to be cut down.There are too many speed-breakers on some roads. They keep making unscientific ones and replacing them with “scientific” ones. It doesn’t make sense to have too many speed-breakers.BBMP and Bescom need to coordinate effectively. They keep digging up patches and five years later its not repaired. Safety of pedestrians and motorists needs to be kept in mind. There needs to be consistency in maintaining good roads, both in terms of technology and connectivity.Shrikanth, co-ordinator (Advocacy) with NGO Janagraha:BBMP needs to address mobility in terms of walkability, driveability and public transport for people.Garbage problems have to be addressed as a part of sanitation requirementSafety of citizens. Someone leaves the slabs of a footpath open (it needs) to be addressed or you need to provide street lights. T V Mohadas Pai, Vice President of BPACBBMP needs to be reformed, broken up into five smaller corporations – Old Bangalore with 100 wards, North, South, East, West and South, each with a population of 20 lakh. the heart of Bangalore wont grow, but the outer areas will grow.There is a garbage mafia who take a lot of money from the BBMP for not doing any work. There is a water mafia too, which sabotages the water supply. The BWSSB is (hand inglove) with them.Nearly 85 percent of buildings in the city have some irregularity or other. To obtain a building permit you have to bribe someone or other.Road mafias of six or seven contractors build shoddy roads and charge the BBMP. But the BBMP is broke so, not much money is wasted on them. Roads are not safe.