Residents of Jayanagar 5 Block here are a worried lot. They are not only forced to bear with leakage of water pipes following work on laying of new sanitary lines by the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board but are also made to go without water for days as a result of damaged pipelines.
That is not all. The contractors, who are entrusted the work by BWSSB, frequently demand money from the residents to restore the dug up roads.
Several residents told The Hindu that the workers are so careless while executing the work that most water supply lines have been damaged cutting off water supply to their houses. “BWSSB has not made it clear whether residents have to pay for the connections to the new sanitary lines.
Moreover, a common rate to be charged by the contractors has not been fixed. As a result, we are being fooled by the contractors who are making demands according to their whims and fancies,” said a resident, who did not want to be named.
“The person in charge came to us and said that they will charge Rs. 10,000 for connecting the sanitary pipes of our house to the main sanitary line,” said Pavitra Ganesh Rao, a resident of 9th Main Road, where BWSSB is laying new sanitary lines and constructing new manholes.
Similarly, residents alleged that the workers and contractors were demanding amount ranging from Rs. 3,500 to Rs. 10,000 for the new connections. BWSSB started work on laying the new lines on 9th Main Road 15 days ago as the old sanitary lines were corroded and often got blocked.
Another resident Chandrashekar Y. said that the residents were not informed before hand about the work by BWSSB. “There has been no communication between the residents and BWSSB officials and we are not even aware that the work is allotted to private contractors,” he said.
Shubha K., a resident of 38th Cross, 9th Main Road, said that although they complained several times in the past two years about the clogged sewage lines, the board had not responded. “Now, following the work, water supply to our houses had been cut off for two days,” she said. BWSSB Assistant Executive Engineer (South West 4) Rajeev G. clarified that the board was replacing the old pipelines at its own cost.
“The residents will have to get their individual house connections linked to the main lines and they will have to spend on that. They can get it done through private plumbers,” he said. Denying that the water supply was cut off following the work, Mr. Rajeev said that there was some disruption because some lines got damaged.
However, the problem was corrected in a day. Work on the main road will be completed within three days. There will not be any problem after that,” he said.
